Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993 TAG: 9304290119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Tears streamed down the face of Nellie Sue Whitt, 45, after Roanoke County Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens denied her request for a probationary sentence.
Whitt begged Clemens for mercy, saying she needed to stay at home to care for her two children, ages 13 and 11.
But Clemens decided Whitt deserved time behind bars for beating up her boyfriend's wife in an unprovoked attack last fall.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mark Claytor recommended that she serve a year in jail, describing the beating as a "cold-blooded, premeditated" attack that left the victim with 15 stitches in her head and more than $1,000 in medical bills.
"It's difficult for me to conceive of a more serious assault and battery," Claytor said.
In the Bedford County murder case, Whitt is accused of killing her fiance in July 1991 by running him over with his own truck to collect his $100,000 insurance policy. Whitt has said it was an accident, telling police that Roy Willard Thompson, 45, dove in front of the truck in a suicidal plunge.
Clemens sentenced Whitt to one year in jail, suspended after she served 90 days.
He also ordered her to pay the victim's medical bills.
Whitt was given 10 days to report to jail so she can make arrangements for the care of her children.
Her attorney, Marc Small, has 30 days to appeal the assault and battery conviction.
by CNB