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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308050225
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRUSH BANDIT: 3 YEARS

The jury gave a three-year prison sentence to Brian K. Wilson, who was caught stealing a toothbrush and a hairbrush from the Super-X drugstore at Valley View Mall in February.

The pilfered brushes were worth $6.98 - not enough to cover court costs for the first hour of a trial that lasted two days in Roanoke Circuit Court.

But Wilson, who at 33 has a prior record of shoplifting convictions, insisted on justice at any cost.

A jury was impaneled at his request, giving the Roanoke community perhaps its first chance to speak out on the crime of toothbrush thievery.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner called it a simple case of someone who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

But after Wilson took the witness stand to deny stealing the brushes, the case became far from simple. In rambling testimony, he described in depth his marital problems and his resulting "preoccupation" the day of the thefts.

Other witnesses testified that Wilson slipped the brushes into his shirt pocket and walked out of the store, setting off an alarm triggered by magnetized tags on the merchandise.

After being taken to a security office, Wilson popped one of the tags in his mouth and began to chew. "No evidence, no crime," a guard quoted him as saying.

Jurors obviously saw it differently. But it could have been worse for Wilson: Because of his prior record, he had faced up to five years.