DATE: Wednesday, October 8, 1997            TAG: 9710080511

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

VIRGINIA [BRIEFS]

SOUTHWEST

Witness: Man said he planned murder before killing

INDEPENDENCE - A white man talked about plans to ``kill a Negro'' hours before a black man was burned alive and beheaded after a party in a backwoods trailer, a witness testified Tuesday.

Louis Ceparano and Emmett Cressell Jr. were described as longtime drinking buddies who dragged Garnett P. Johnson from a trailer where the three had been drinking.

Johnson was doused with gasoline and burned alive. Later, the corpse's head was severed.

Grayson County General District Judge Daniel Bird ruled that there was enough evidence to have a grand jury hear the case on Oct. 24.

Louis Ceparano, 42, faces capital murder and robbery charges and could receive the death penalty if convicted. Emmett Cressell Jr., 36 - the alleged accomplice - faces first-degree murder and robbery charges. He could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty.

The FBI is investigating whether Johnson's death was a racially motivated hate crime.

Christy Harden, 21, testified that the three men and another woman were in the trailer to celebrate Harden's 21st birthday.

She said that shortly after 4 a.m. on July 25, after a long night of drinking, Ceparano and Cressell carried Johnson, 40, out of the trailer by his hands and feet. A few minutes later she looked out a window and saw something burning.

``I seen G.P. on fire,'' she said.

Harden testified that earlier in the evening, Ceparano told his girlfriend, Louise Anderson, that ``excuse the phrase, he was going to kill a Negro.''

Several black people in the courtroom shook their heads and some sighed as they listened to the testimony.

Representatives of several civil rights organizations monitored the hearing, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Virginia NAACP President Paul Gillis said the testimony provided further evidence that this was a racially motivated hate crime.

PIEDMONT

Male, female at VMI are punished for kissing

LEXINGTON - Two freshmen cadets at Virginia Military Institute, a man and a woman, were put on campus confinement for a month after getting caught kissing each other in the barracks.

The two, who were not identified, were discovered by a barracks guard under a desk in a darkened room on the night of Sept. 20. The incident was reviewed by the cadet Executive Committee, which handles disciplinary violations by cadets.

The two cadets also were given additional marching duty as a penalty.

``You've got males and females, and, you know, things like that'll happen,'' VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said Tuesday.

The kissing incident was the first known violation of the school's new anti-fraternization rules that were developed when the school enrolled women for the first time in August.

The rules, among other things, forbid public displays of affection and relationships within the chain of command. Cadets must also have lights on and door shades up when members of the opposite sex are in a room.

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