
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990                   TAG: 9004030417
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:    CHRISTIANSBURG -                                 LENGTH: Short

TEEN INDICTED IN RAPE TRY

A Christiansburg youth accused of breaking into a woman's apartment and trying to rape her in January was indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury Monday.

Vernell Delray Johnson, 17, will be tried as an adult in Montgomery County Circuit Court on charges of attempted rape and breaking and entering with intent to commit rape.

In a previous hearing, Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge J. Patrick Graybeal transferred the charges from the Juvenile Court to the grand jury.

Johnson faces similar charges in Radford, where a grand jury indicted him last month on charges of breaking and entering, rape and attempted rape in connection with attacks against four Radford University students in January.

Those charges also had been transferred by Graybeal from the Juvenile Court to the grand jury.

Johnson was arrested at his home Jan. 18 and charged with attacking the Christiansburg woman in her apartment the previous night. The day after his arrest, he also was charged with attacking the four students on different nights in January.

by CNB