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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993                   TAG: 9307020123
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

KILLER'S EARLIER 5-YEAR TERM IS REINSTATED

A five-year suspended sentence that Thomas Jefferson Midkiff received in 1986 after pleading guilty to attempted rape, kidnapping and inflicting a knife wound was reinstated Thursday by Circuit Judge Duane Mink.

Rather than make them concurrent, Mink added the extra five years to the two consecutive life terms Midkiff received last month for killing Sheila Marie Ring and her daughter, Jasmine Sutphin, and setting fire to their house in December 1991.

Midkiff, 29, got still another sentence of 10 years last month and a $15,000 fine for arson. He is appealing the murder and arson convictions from his weeklong jury trial in May.

According to an investigator's report in the files of the earlier charges, a woman gave Midkiff a ride about 12:30 p.m. Dec. 27, 1985, from a store in the Cana area of Carroll County. Midkiff pulled a knife, made her stop in a remote area, forced her out of the car and made her start undressing.

The woman was cut in the stomach during the encounter. She persuaded Midkiff to return with her to the store. Once there, she locked herself inside and called for help.

Midkiff was arrested in North Carolina and extradited to Virginia. In a plea bargain Sept. 11, 1986, he received three 10-year sentences to run at the same time for abduction, wounding and attempted rape with five years suspended in each case. He was required to be under court supervision for five years after his release.

He showed good behavior behind bars and was let out on work-release Jan. 30, 1989.