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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110375
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COURT TO HEAR PATRICK MAN'S MURDER APPEAL

Allan Donathan Rakes was convicted by a Henry County jury of the shotgun slaying of 19-year-old Anita Carol Hill on March 24. The trial was moved from Patrick to Henry County because of pretrial publicity.

Rakes was accused of shooting Hill as she sat in a car in the parking lot of the Patrick Springs bank on Oct. 19, 1988.

The court granted the appeal hearing by an order filed on April 2 but has yet to set a date for oral arguments.

Rakes' attorney, Ward Armstrong of Henry County, said the appeal is based on two theories: that the evidence presented at Rakes' trial was not strong enough to convict him, and that several statements about Rakes' prior conduct were improperly admitted into evidence.

The case against Rakes was based on circumstantial evidence. To obtain a conviction based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution has to exclude every reasonable possibility of the accused's innocence, Armstrong said.

Nobody saw Rakes at the scene of the shooting and forensic tests could not establish that the shots were fired from Rakes' shotgun.

Just to get a writ granted for an appeal increases his optimism, Armstrong said.

The movement of a case through the appeals court generally takes about six months, Armstrong said. The court has three options, he said: to affirm the conviction, to reverse the conviction and remand the case to the Circuit Court for retrial, or to reverse the conviction and dismiss the charge.

Rakes is currently in the custody of the Virginia correctional system but he is unsure exactly where, Armstrong said.