DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310608

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  107 lines

VIRGINIA [BRIEFS]

2 companies fined

for accident that

killed Waverly man

HOPEWELL - The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Program has assessed $48,000 in penalties against two companies involved in an April accident at Stone Container Corp. that killed a Waverly man.

Stone Container was fined $34,000 and Atlantic Metal Products Inc. was fined $14,000.

State officials issued the fines Oct. 24 in connection with the accident that killed Raymond Artis, an employee of Topping-based Atlantic Metal.

Both companies have 15 days from their receipt of the penalties to contest the citations.

``What we were cited for we didn't feel like we had anything to do with,'' Raymond Campbell, president of Atlantic Metal, said Thursday. ``We are going to fight them.''

Lyn Dunn, human resource manager for Stone Container, said the company has not decided whether to contest the fines.

Stone Container had contracted Atlantic Metal to construct a steel catwalk above an outdoor chemical tank that contained a chemical byproduct of wood pulp that is processed at Stone Container.

Artis, 37, was walking along a narrow plank on the side of the tank when he either slipped or accidentally stepped off the board onto the roof of the tank.

The roof - weakened due to exposure to the elements - collapsed and Artis fell into the chemical tank, whose contents were heated to 138 degrees and had the consistency of molasses, VOSH said.

VOSH also cited the Hopewell Bureau of Fire but did not fine the city.

NORTHERN

Man convicted of traveler's

murder seeks a new trial

MANASSAS - A Spotsylvania man convicted of killing a motorist in the restroom of an Interstate 95 rest stop last December is seeking a new trial.

Andre V. Carter, 18, was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday on first-degree murder and related convictions in the slaying of Bobby Lee Durham. Carter faces up to two life terms plus eight years in prison.

But Carter's lawyer, Joseph Morrissey, argued that prosecutors withheld a statement that a co-defendant, Khalif Rodriguez, initially made to police claiming that Carter was not the triggerman.

Morrissey on Thursday filed a motion for a new trial, along with a motion to review all the prosecution's evidence, including Rodriguez's statement to authorities.

Morrissey said that the prosecution failed to make the statement available to him during Carter's trial.

He said he also wanted to see if other evidence was withheld by prosecutors.

Prince William County Circuit Judge Richard B. Potter postponed Carter's sentencing to Dec. 15. Potter did not indicate when he would rule on the defense motions.

Rodriguez, 19, testified that he robbed Durham after kicking in a restroom stall door. Rodriguez testified he then saw Carter shoot Durham.

Durham, 51, was driving home to Dover, Pa., from a family trip to South Carolina when he was killed. < Piedmont

Deputies enter uninvited

and seize bedridden man

STANLEY - Howard Painter was watching the Washington Redskins on TV when he heard sheriff's deputies talking in front of his house.

Moments later, three of the deputies came through his unlocked front door into the living room, where Painter - bedridden since 1989 from a car crash - was lying in a hospital bed.

Two deputies stood at the front of the bed and pushed his arms behind his head, apparently trying to handcuff him, while another stood on the side, recalled the 64-year-old Painter.

Painter's wife Doris, watching another TV upstairs, heard her husband yell out in pain and rushed downstairs.

As she came into the room, one of the deputies shined a flashlight in her face.

``I said, `What are y'all doing? What are y'all doing in my house?' '' Painter said.

As it turned out, the deputies were in the wrong house. They meant to be two doors away at the house of a neighbor being sought in an assault complaint.

When Doris Painter told them of the mistake, the deputies quickly left - but not before one of them warned her to stay inside because the real suspect was ``toting a pistol,'' she said.

Both of Painter's arms were bruised in the Oct. 13 incident, and his right arm had swelling from being wrenched behind his head, Doris Painter said. He was treated at a hospital.

Page County Sheriff E.M. ``Pap'' Sedwick declined Wednesday to comment, other than to say that if the Painters sue ``you'll hear our story in court.''

One of deputies, Joey Buynar, admitted the mistake to Doris Painter later that night, she said. But the next day, she said, Buynar was claiming the deputies were trying to evacuate the neighborhood because the suspect they were after was armed.

Her husband insists the deputies were trying to handcuff him, Doris Painter said. Her husband, a former town police officer, knows what that feels like, she said.

``They treated him like he was some crook or something,'' she said, adding that she almost grabbed a gun she keeps upstairs when she heard the commotion.

``They're lucky I didn't shoot them,'' she said. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL MURDER REST STOP

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