DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709080050

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   38 lines

DRISCOLL TIED UP, KILLED EX-WIFE AND GOT LIFE

On the night of Sept. 20, 1996, Dana T. Driscoll went to his ex-wife's townhouse in the College Park section of Virginia Beach with three weapons: a sawed-off shotgun, a handgun and an electronic stun gun.

After blasting his way through the front door with the shotgun - and injuring his wife's 49-year-old boyfriend, William D. Cartwright, with the same blast - Driscoll stood over Cartwright and shot him a second time, this time fatally.

Driscoll, 42, then began hunting for his wife. He found a terrified 39-year-old Susan Driscoll huddled behind her bed in an upstairs bedroom, frantically whispering for help into a telephone.

Driscoll held his wife hostage for several hours as police negotiators and an emergency SWAT team attempted to end the crisis and save Susan Driscoll's life. At some point during the siege, he hog-tied his wife with electrical cord.

Several times police contacted Dana Driscoll by telephone, but they couldn't talk him into letting his ex-wife go.

After four hours, Driscoll ended the crisis himself, shooting her in the back of the head with the shotgun.

Driscoll was charged with capital murder, first-degree murder and use of a sawed-off shotgun.

He accepted a plea bargain offered by Commonwealth's Attorney Robert J. Humphreys that guaranteed the death penalty would not be pursued if he pleaded guilty to all three charges.

Driscoll is serving his sentence at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk. He has attempted suicide there at least once since he was sentenced in July.

- Jon Frank MEMO: [For related stories, see page A1 and A8 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

for this date.]

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