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

DATE: SUNDAY, June 10, 1990                   TAG: 9006100191
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEGED KILLER HAD ABUSIVE COURT HISTORY

The man charged with capital murder in the death of Maxine Bartlett and a friend at Eastern State Hospital spent 10 days in jail in December for using a two-by-four to beat her, records indicate.

"He beat me with a two-by-four board, beat my face, bit my finger, made me pull my clothes off, then beat me, choked me, almost killed me, then two kids came to the home and knocked on the door," Bartlett wrote in a statement made to police about the Oct. 22 assault by Lloyd Christian Sr. of Toano.

The beating left her with black eyes, and bruises on her arms and her leg. Fearing for her life, she moved to a shelter in Portsmouth for battered women, the shelter director said Friday.

General District Judge J.R. Zepkin sentenced Christian on Dec. 7 to six months in jail with 5 1/2 months suspended, fined him $150, and ordered him not to contact Bartlett for two years.

Christian, 56, served 10 days in jail with time off for good behavior for the misdemeanor offense. He paid only $20 of the fine and was scheduled to appear in court June 14 for failing to pay the rest.

Thursday, one week after Bartlett moved home from Portsmouth to Williamsburg, she and Van Overby were shot in the chest and head at close range in the hospital parking lot.

A bullet also grazed the hand of Bartlett's and Overby's 12-year-old daughter, Kizzy Christian, who also was in the car.

After a six-hour manhunt, Christian turned himself in to a security guard at the hospital Thursday night, and was taken to Williamsburg Community Hospital. He was being observed for a heart condition and remained in satisfactory condition Saturday in the intensive care unit, authorities said.

Police charged Christian with two counts of capital murder and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, James City Capt. Ken Middlebrook said.

Bartlett and Kizzy stayed at the Portsmouth shelter from Oct. 24 to Dec. 16. Then social workers helped them move into a home in Portsmouth where they would be far enough from Christian to feel safe, said Stephanie Thomas, a counselor at the center.

Elizabeth Brickhouse, director of the HER shelter, said Bartlett was the fourth woman who had stayed at the shelter since 1986 who later was slain, allegedly by her abuser.

by CNB