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

DATE: THURSDAY, December 30, 1993                   TAG: 9312300253
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOLIDAY SLAYING TO GRAND JURY / POLICE SAY BOYFRIEND BLAMED DRINK, DRUGS

The day after Thanksgiving, Albert E. Brown tapped on the glass window of the detective division at the Roanoke Police Department and said he had some information about a homicide.

"I've killed my girlfriend," he reportedly told police.

Detective M.E. Meador testified Wednesday that Brown confessed to smothering Teresa Darnell Tucker, 32, with a pillow because he was upset with her drinking and drug use.

After hearing Meador's testimony, Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge John Ferguson found probable cause to support a murder charge against Brown.

The case will go to a grand jury, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mac Doubles.

In his statement to police, Brown "alleged that [Tucker] had been drinking and driving and doing drugs, and that he wouldn't stand for it," Doubles said.

A pipe used to smoke crack cocaine was found in the apartment Brown and Tucker shared. Authorities are waiting for results of laboratory tests to determine if Tucker had used drugs or alcohol before her death, Doubles said.

During his statement to police, Brown handed them the keys to his home and said they could find Tucker's body there.

Authorities found her body at an apartment in the Indian Village housing project in Southeast Roanoke. She appeared to have been dead for at least a day.

An autopsy determined that Tucker had died of suffocation in a manner consistent with a pillow being held over her face.

Brown, 42, did not testify at Wednesday's preliminary hearing, and Assistant Public Defender Marian Kelley presented no evidence. Afterward, Brown was returned to the Roanoke City Jail.

Asked why he had waited more than 24 hours before reporting his girlfriend's death, Brown told police he had tried to kill himself by drinking alcohol mixed with bleach.

When that didn't work, he decided to turn himself in.

Authorities believe that Tucker was killed early Thanksgiving. In his statement to police, Brown said he was looking at a clock and remembered the exact time she stopped struggling - 3:50 a.m.

Keywords:
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by CNB