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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 21, 1994                   TAG: 9405230144
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

MAN GETS LIFE PLUS 12 YEARS FOR RANDOM SHOOTING

A Pulaski man who said a drug-and-alcohol haze prevents him from remembering if he shot a Lynchburg foundry worker in the cheek as the man drove to work in 1992 was sentenced to life plus 12 years in prison Friday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

A jury found Christopher Dane McGlothlin, 20, guilty in December of the November 1992 malicious wounding of Curtis Sifford, a worker at the Lynchburg Foundry's Radford plant whom authorities say was unlucky enough to become the random target in two young men's apparent plan to see what it would be like to shoot, and possibly kill someone.

Sifford, 58, was shot in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun as he drove down U.S. 11 near Fairlawn on his way to work. He was able to keep driving until he flagged down a co-worker to help him.

McGlothlin and another Pulaski county man, David Allen Lawson , 22, were both tried on charges of malicious wounding, shooting into an occupied vehicle and using a firearm to commit the offenses.

Sifford's lip and lower face are still numb and part of his arm, used to help repair his face, has lost strength and mobility.

Friday, Wanda McGlothlin implored Judge Dow Owens to lessen the jury's sentence and see that her son received psychiatric help he needs to deal with this incident and for other problems he has had since being involved in a serious 1991 car wreck.

"He don't know what's real and what's not real anymore," Wanda McGlothlin testified, then began to cry. "I love my son and I don't want him spending life in prison."

Commonwealth's Attorney Everett Shockley empathized with the woman, but asked her to consider the pain the Sifford family was also undergoing.

Christopher McGlothlin told Owens Friday that he still couldn't say whether he was the trigger-man in the shooting, calling it a mystery to him. In December, McGlothlin told the jury he had been drinking heavily and taking prescription medicine the night of the shooting. Evidence discussed at Friday's sentencing indicated he also was using marijuana and cocaine. But he testified that either way, he was sorry for the Siffords' ordeal.

"I could have done it and I couldn't have done it ... I don't know what happened. I'm real sorry."

Owen's upheld the jury's findings, sentencing McGlothlin to life in prison and a $100,000 fine for the malicious wounding; 10 years in prison for shooting into an occupied vehicle; and two years in prison on the firearms charge.

Lawson pleaded guilty to the same three charges last year and also received life plus 12 years in prison.

by CNB