THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 28, 1996 TAG: 9609280237
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 71 lines
Megan Jones will finally be laid to rest next week.
Friday, a Norfolk Circuit Court judge put an end to the legal wrangling that has kept her body at the medical examiner's office since her murder and autopsy in May.
Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. ordered Jones' body released from state custody on Tuesday at noon, allowing plans to proceed for a mid-week funeral and burial by friends and the community.
``That's good news,'' said Leslie Capshaw, Megan Jones' niece, who speaks for the family. ``The family is pleased about that.''
The body has been in limbo since June when Tobin Jones - charged in his wife's murder - fought Megan's parents in their attempt to get the body and cremate it as their daughter wished. Jones said he needed the body for further testing and an independent autopsy.
The parents gave up their fight almost immediately, citing emotional and financial exhaustion. Recently, the attorney general's office said the body could be released without Tobin Jones' permission as next of kin, as long as it wasn't cremated.
This week, the medical examiner's office declared Jones' body ``unclaimed'' and started paperwork to turn the body over to the sheriff's department for a ``pauper's burial.''
That took defense attorneys by surprise. Amid protests from the community and an outpouring of donations to give Jones - a local theater seamstress and actress - a proper burial, the attorneys moved quickly to stop the release of the body.
This time, they argued that the autopsy could not be done because Tobin Jones has been declared incompetent and is being treated for mental illness at Central State Hospital. The defense attorneys argue that they need Jones to tell them what testing he wanted done on the body.
In a hearing Wednesday, Judge Martin swept away those arguments, telling defense attorneys if they returned by week's end with concrete plans for a quick autopsy, he might find in their favor.
On Friday, defense attorney Kim Shoemaker told Martin she had found a medical examiner in North Carolina who would do an autopsy on Monday. She had arranged for the body to be transported and promised to return it in time for the mid-week funeral.
Martin denied the request after hearing from prosecutors, a representative of the attorney general's office and the medical examiner. All said they objected to the body being moved.
Citing sensitivity to the family and concern that something could happen to the body en route that would effect evidence in the murder trial, Martin said defense attorneys have ``not been vigilant'' in seeking an autopsy during the past four months.
Martin left the door open for an independent autopsy to be performed Monday, if defense attorneys can find someone to do it in Norfolk. Shoemaker said she will continue her search through the weekend.
Megan Jones' family and friends could not be reached for comment Friday, but they have been against any further delays in releasing the body. A local fund was set up to help pay for a private funeral after friends discovered she was to be buried in a cloth-covered pine box at state expense.
``There is still some potential for her family to come in for the funeral, so there would have been a delay anyway,'' said George Schaefer, public affairs officer for the sheriff's department, who is handling the paperwork for the release of the body. ``I'm glad they didn't let the body go out of state. Enough is enough.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Friends set up a fund to give the body of Megan Jones a decent
burial.
KEYWORDS: MURDER FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS by CNB