THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MARTINSBURG, W.VA. LENGTH: 23 lines
A man admitted killing a former Virginia Beach resident, then tried to escape as detectives prepared to fingerprint him, authorities said.
Banner Catlett, 21, of Hedgesville, was being held without bail today on charges of murder and attempted escape, a jail spokeswoman said.
Catlett said he shot Andrew Mason twice in the head with a .22-caliber rifle that he had stolen from his mother, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Magistrate Court.
Friends said Mason was a drummer in a Christian rock band. He had moved from Virginia Beach after his brother started working as a minister in Hedgesville, in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle, said John Ashley, Mason's roommate.
Ashley said he last saw Mason alive Monday night, then found his body the next morning lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of their home.