DATE: Monday, April 28, 1997                TAG: 9704280082

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Correspondent Jane Harper researched and wrote this report.

                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ......TROY WEBB, FREED FROM PRISON BY DNA EVIDENCE

In October 1996, Troy Webb got the phone call he had been praying to receive for nine years. Gov. George F. Allen pardoned him from a 47-year prison sentence after a DNA test proved he was innocent of rape. Now, he's working hard at living in freedom.

It's been six months since 29-year-old Troy Webb walked out of Keene Mountain Correctional Center. He hasn't exactly been spending his new free time as leisurely as some might have expected.

``I've been working, mostly,'' Webb said when reached recently at his mother's Virginia Beach home. ``I've been working 10 to 13 hours a day, so I haven't had a lot of free time to do the things I'd like to do.''

Webb told reporters after his release from prison that one of the first things he was going to do was eat a Subway sandwich - and he took a job at a friend's Subway sandwich shop in the London Bridge Shopping Center in Virginia Beach. He did a little bit of everything, making subs and doing some janitorial work.

Although he said he enjoyed the job, Webb quit last week and is looking for a new one. ``I've already had some offers from people - doing some landscaping or janitorial work.''

Webb said he tries not to think about the time he spent in prison. And, surprisingly, he said he doesn't feel any anger.

``I got all of the anger out of me the first four years I was in prison. It doesn't bother me now.''

So what has he enjoyed most as a free man?

``Being able to go where I want, when I want to, and not having someone say `Go here' and `Do this' all the time. I just enjoy having fun.''

Webb spends most of his free time with his family and a group of about six longtime friends who stayed loyal during his prison stint and wrote to him frequently.

Next month, he'll be on TV. The Discovery Channel plans to telecast a program produced by New Dominion Pictures of Virginia Beach called ``New Detectives,'' in which Webb's case will be one of three discussed. Webb and one of his attorneys, Barry Scheck (notable today as a member of the O.J. Simpson ``Dream Team''), were interviewed for the program, scheduled for 9 p.m. and midnight Tuesday, May 6.

Meanwhile, Webb said he and his attorneys are considering filing a request with the state in which they will seek compensation for the time he spent in prison.

He also hopes to travel to New York soon to thank Scheck in person.

``I call him at home and talk to him all the time, but I've never met him in person.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff/file photo

Troy Webb, left, holds a press conference in front of his mother's

house after he was released from prison in October 1996. Webb has

been working at a sandwich shop since then, and now he is looking

for another job.

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