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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160509
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

PATRICK COUNTY KILLER CURSES JUDGE IN COURT

A convicted killer was taken from the courtroom Tuesday after he cursed the judge during jury selection for his sentencing hearing.

Dennis Stockton, convicted of capital murder in the 1978 contract killing of a teen-ager in Patrick County, shouted complaints about the city jail and made requests to fire his attorneys.

Circuit Judge Frank I. Richardson of Patrick County refused to release the attorneys and sent Stockton back to a holding cell, where he began banging on the bars.

Given a second chance to sit in on the juror interviews, Stockton cursed the judge and called him a crook.

He was taken back to jail.

Stockton successfully appealed the death sentence he received in his original trial in Patrick County because a diner owner told four jurors he thought they should send Stockton to the electric chair.

Stockton's new hearing is for sentencing only. It is being held in Newport News because of extensive publicity in Patrick County.

Richardson said Stockton would stay in jail until he could sit in court without disrupting the proceedings. His attorney, Louis M. Bograd, said he would try to have the prisoner in court today.

- Associated Press

by CNB