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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990                   TAG: 9004110654
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN IS SHOT; EX-BOYFRIEND HELD

Martha Ann McGeorge, 39, of 914 Cottage Ave., Vinton, was in critical condition today with shotgun wounds to her hip and head, authorities said.

Her former boyfriend, Earl Eugene Meece, 56, was being held without bond in the Roanoke County/Salem Jail on charges of malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of an illegal weapon - single-shot sawed-off shotgun, according to Vinton Police Chief R.R. Foutz. At his arraignment today, he said he moved from Vinton to Mississippi six weeks ago.

In August 1989, Meece was sentenced a 12-month suspended sentence and fined $1,000 for brandishing a firearm at McGeorge in June 1989, Roanoke County Circuit Court records show. Judge G.O. Clemens also placed Meece on five years' inactive probation for the charge and was ordered to not possess any weapons or to have any contact with McGeorge or her family during that time, the records show.

McGeorge had charged Meece twice with trespassing at her home after she had forbidden him to come on her property and once with destroying her property.

General District Court Judge John Apostolou took a Dec. 25, 1988, trespassing charge under advisement for 12 months and ordered Meece not to have any contact with McGeorge directly or indirectly. That charge was later dismissed.

In February 1989, McGeorge again charged Meece with trespassing at her home and defacing her property. Apostolou also took those charges under advisement for 12 months and later dismissed them.

General District Court Substitute Judge Ellen Weinman convicted Meece of brandishing a firearm at McGeorge in June 1989.

Meece was apprehended by Vinton police Tuesday night as he was leaving the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of the Berkshire Health Care Center at 705 Clearview Drive. McGeorge, an employee of the health care center, was on her way to work around 10:30 p.m., according to Bill Brown, chief investigator with the Vinton Police Department.

She was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Police were called to the health care center at 10:37 p.m. after reports of several gunshots having been fired in the parking lot.

An officer arriving at the scene blocked the exit from the parking lot and stopped Meece as he was leaving, Foutz said.