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

DATE: THURSDAY, May 31, 1990                   TAG: 9005310608
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By Southwest bureau
DATELINE: TAZEWELL                                LENGTH: Short

DISMISSAL OF CAPITAL CHARGES ASKED

An attorney for accused triple slayer Sam Ealy argued Wednesday that the capital murder charges should be dismissed because of police misconduct, and suggested that a special grand jury investigate the investigators.

Circuit Judge Donald Mullins took the dismissal motion under advisement, and gave defense attorneys Tom Scott and Marty Large 10 days to submit written briefs supporting it. Tazewell County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowen will have 10 days to respond.

The prosecutor said failure to tell the defense that a key witness had named others besides Ealy as the killer was "an innocent oversight due to a management problem" of having no single coordinator for the case.

Scott said it would be hard to find precedents because, "I'd be willing to bet there hasn't been a case in the country where the things have occurred like they have in this case."

Ealy, 27, was scheduled for trial this week in the shotgun deaths of Robert and Una Mae Davis and the woman's 14-year-old son, Bobby Hopewell, early April 16, 1989, at their home in Pocahontas.

But Bowen, prompted by Scott on Friday to check further, learned that 16-year-old Brian Burnopp - Ealy's half-brother and a key figure in his indictment - had named a variety of people in inconsistent stories during a rambling six-hour account while intoxicated.

by CNB