Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201230293
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
CHRISTIANSBURG SHOOTING BRINGS TERM OF 16 YEARS
A Christiansburg man was sentenced to 16 years in prison Wednesday after a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury found him guilty of shooting another Christiansburg man.Carl Phillips Jr., 28, of Calhoun Street was convicted of malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The victim, Lowell Dow, still carries the bullet that struck him one night last July.
A jury of six men and six woman set his sentence at 14 years for the wounding of Dow and two years for using a firearm.
On related charges, Phillips was found innocent of abducting Angela Island, 21, his former girlfriend, and using a firearm in an abduction.
Dow and Island testified they went to the Christiansburg Police Department last July to report a prowler at their Main Street apartment.
Later that night, Dow testified, he heard gunshots outside their door and investigated. As he stood outside, "something went pow-pow, so that's when I ducked."
Dow said he heard other shots, started to move and was shot in the groin area. When he fell to the ground, Dow said, he saw Phillips under his car.
Dow said he began running toward a neighbor's house to call police and Phillips slid out from under the car. The shots continued. Dow said he believed "this man was out to kill me."
As he stood at his neighbor's house, Dow said he could see Phillips walking down the street with Island and holding a gun.
The bullet that injured Dow lodged in his right thigh, where it remains, Dr. David Stoeckle of Montgomery Regional Hospital testified.
After Dow was shot, Island testified, Phillips came to the door as she was trying to close it and threatened to shoot Dow again if she didn't open the door.
"I felt like if I didn't go I might have got hurt myself," she testified.
She said she was taken by the arm about a block away from the house, but Phillips left when he saw a police car approaching.
In his defense, Phillips testified that Island told him Dow had hit her at a party and she wanted him to come and get her.
"I went up there for the main purpose of getting Angie out of there," he testified. He said he took a gun for protection. "I did not go up there intentionally to shoot the man."
Phillips said he was sitting on the porch when Dow returned from the police department. He said Dow pulled a gun out of car trunk and Phillips fired one shot at Dow. He said Island went with him willingly, taking time to put on some sneakers.