THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996 TAG: 9609200559
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY STEPHEN SOBEK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: 56 lines
A man who sat in a car that held cocaine as his cousin from Manteo fatally shot a state trooper was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison without parole.
William Smith Lynch, 21, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty to murder and drug conspiracy charges last month in the death of Maryland State Police Trooper Edward Plank Jr. Lynch agreed to the sentence in a plea bargain with prosecutors.
As Lynch waited in a car last fall, Ivan Lovell of Manteo, shot Plank in the face during a routine traffic stop on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The two were transporting 13 ounces of cocaine to North Carolina.
``Mr. Lynch, you are the second most-despicable person I've ever dealt with,'' said the trooper's father, Edward Plank Sr., who addressed Lynch on behalf of the officer's family. ``The first was your cousin, Ivan Lovell.''
Four state police troopers joined Plank's widow, Lori, and several members of Plank's family crowded into the small courtroom for the sentencing.
Lynch, wearing a white and blue plaid shirt and shorts, stared silently at the defense table while Plank repeatedly called him ``scum.''
``I hope and pray you burn in hell forever,'' Plank said.
Lynch declined to make a statement.
U.S. District Court Judge Marvin J. Garbis said he wanted to use the sentence to ``send a signal'' to drug couriers who carry guns. On the request of his attorney, William B. Purpura, Garbis agreed to recommend that Lynch be placed in a medium-security federal prison, preferably in Cumberland or Morgantown, W.V.
Purpura called the plea agreement fair.
``But no one, when they receive 20 years, can say they are satisfied with the sentence,'' he said.
Prosecutors had moved Lynch's case to federal court because he did not participate in the killing - and could not be charged with murder under state law. Under federal law, an accomplice can be charged with murder.
Garbis gave Lynch two 20-year sentences, one for the murder charge and the other for drug conspiracy. The sentences will be served concurrently. The prison term is the equivalent of a state sentence of 40 to 60 years because it does not allow parole.
``I wish we had never been here, for all the reasons in the world,''Garbis said after the sentencing.
Plank had stopped Lynch and Lovell for speeding at about 1 a.m. on Oct. 17 near Princess Anne. They were driving to North Carolina after a drug-buying trip to New York. Plank, 28, became suspicious when Lovell gave him a false driver's license.
Police said Lovell shot Plank in the face, fired at his partner and sped off in the car.
Lovell was caught after trying to break into a Crisfield home. Lynch was found hiding in some bushes about two miles away.
Lovell was convicted of murder and sentenced in June to be executed by lethal injection. by CNB