Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991 TAG: 9104130460
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: TAZEWELL LENGTH: Short
A capital murder charge was dropped under a plea agreement.
Delbert Martin Smith is scheduled for sentencing June 12 following a pre-sentence report.
The body of the victim, Opie Patton Meadows, had been discovered by his daughter, Millie Meadows, a sheriff's office dispatcher.
She said she was dissatisfied with the plea agreement and planned to submit a victim-impact statement for the court to consider in sentencing.
Smith could get 20 years to life imprisonment on the murder conviction, five years to life for robbery and two years for use of a firearm in a felony.
He and a girlfriend, Jilliana Philbrook, were arrested in Florida May 4, 1990, one day after the murder. Both were charged initially, but the charge against Philbrook was dropped when authorities decided she had not known of the crime.
Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowen said he was uncertain about how credible a key witness - an inmate to whom Smith supposedly admitted the crime - would be before a jury.
- Southwest bureau
by CNB