DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290626

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   40 lines

EX-CHURCHLAND STUDENT GUILTY IN 2 OFFENSES AT HIGH SCHOOL

A Circuit Court judge found a 16-year-old former Churchland High School student guilty Tuesday of possession of a firearm on school property, brandishing a firearm and abduction.

Corey Sublett, who was tried as a juvenile, faced five counts for two offenses in January. The first two charges stemmed from a Jan. 8 offense at Churchland High School. The second offense, which led to the other three charges, occurred Jan. 29 at Churchland Middle School.

His case had been appealed to Circuit Court.

Sublett pleaded guilty Tuesday to a grand larceny charge of snatching a necklace from Phillip Smith, 15, Jan. 8. A motion to drop an assault-and-battery charge arising from the same case was granted by Judge Norman Olitsky.

However, Olitsky found Sublett guilty of three other charges that stemmed from an offense three weeks later. Sublett will be sentenced Dec. 23.

Betsy Facenda, 17, testified that she had walked from her home to basketball practice at Churchland Middle School at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 when she was approached by Sublett and three other males near the middle school.

Facenda said the males encircled her and, when she tried to get away, they kept pushing her back into the circle.

Then, Facenda testified, Sublett held a gun to her right temple and said, ``If I go to jail because of your boyfriend, I'm going to kill you.''

``I was in shock, I was crying,'' said Facenda, who was dating Smith at the time. ``I finally got out, and I ran home.''

Facenda's father called police, and the next day, she and her father went to the high school to report the offense to school officials.

Within weeks, Facenda had identified three of the males as Churchland High School students. She identified Sublett, who had been suspended from school, in a photo lineup as the one who had held the gun to her head.

Cases against the other three were dismissed. KEYWORDS: VERDICT GUILT PLEA GRAND LARCENY CHURCHLAND HIGH

SCHOOL

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu