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

DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993                   TAG: 9306140313
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOYDTON                                LENGTH: Medium

DEATH ROW INMATE FOUND DEAD IN CELL

Wayne Kenneth DeLong, scheduled to die in Virginia's electric chair on July 15, was found dead in his cell at the Mecklenburg Correctional Center on Sunday, a newspaper reported.

"My understanding is that DeLong was found dead in his cell and that they are still looking into the cause of it," O. Randolph Rollins, the state secretary of public safety, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch for a story today.

Authorities would not speculate as to the cause of death.

"I'm sure, since it was Sunday, they're going to plan for an investigation starting Monday," Rollins said Sunday night.

DeLong was scheduled to be executed a day after his 38th birthday for the 1986 slaying of a Richmond detective.

An officer at the correctional center told the newspaper that DeLong's body was discovered Sunday morning. He said further information would not be released until today.

Edward W. Murray, director of the Department of Corrections, could not be reached for comment. Other state officials said they either were not aware of the death or the details surrounding it, or could not comment on it.

Peter Decker, chairman of the State Board of Corrections, said he knew nothing about the death. If it was suicide, "he'd have some difficulty doing it with the rules and extra security that we have down there," Decker said.

In April 1987, Virginia death row inmate John Joseph LeVasseur hanged himself.

DeLong, 37, fought with Charles Stamper in 1988, which partly led to Stamper's injuries. Stamper had to be lifted into the electric chair to die.

DeLong was on probation for a 1978 second-degree murder conviction when Richmond police Detective George R. Taylor stopped him on June 16, 1986. DeLong was driving a car also occupied by two friends.

Taylor was shot in the chest at close range with a .45-caliber bullet on Father's Day.

DeLong's most recent appeal failed and an execution date of July 15 - the day after his birthday - was set last month by Richmond Circuit Judge Robert W. Duling.

Neither Decker nor Rollins could say how often DeLong and other death row inmates are ordinarily checked in their cells. "They're under fairly close watch," said Rollins, but, "I'm not expert enough to say what the frequency is."

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB