Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RICHMOND - The owner and employees of a Henrico County jewelry store will not be prosecuted for killing two would-be robbers last month.
After a police investigation and review by prosecutors, Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Toby Vick announced Wednesday that no charges would be filed in the shooting deaths of Thomas J. Salter, 56, of Nashville, and William L. Head, 71, of New Orleans.
``Our conclusion is that the shooting was in self-defense, so the deaths of the two people who entered the store were justifiable homicide,'' Vick said.
Police believe the first shot was fired by one of the robbers, ``followed by a fusillade by the jewelry store employees,'' Vick said.
A total of 33 shots were exchanged in the Dec. 2 gunbattle, which began shortly after the Beverly Hills Jewelers opened at 10 a.m. None of the workers in the store or the one customer was seriously injured.
Store owner Gary Baker kept about a dozen guns, mostly .38 revolvers, in the store, and he and his employees knew how to use them.
Employees Cliff Claymon and Charles Baker said they have been surprised and heartened by the outpouring of community support.
``We've had hundreds of cards and calls,'' Claymon said.
Gary Baker said the support was so strong it stunned him. ``I think we're getting into a time when people are just basically fed up with criminals ruling society.''
- Associated Press
Man gets 5 years for fatal crash
BOWLING GREEN - A Richmond man has been sentenced to five years in prison for a highway accident that killed three children.
The father of two of the children called the sentence virtually ``no time at all.''
``They might as well let him walk free,'' Steven Rivers said.
Hoang Huy Nguyen, 23, apologized Wednesday before receiving three concurrent 10-year prison terms, with half of each suspended.
Nguyen was convicted in August of three counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the July 3, 1993, accident on Interstate 95 in Caroline County.
Amid heavy holiday traffic, Nguyen's southbound car struck a van carrying nine members of Rivers' family.
The van veered off the road, flipped over a guardrail and tumbled down a 50-foot embankment.
Killed were Rivers' 2-year-old daughter, Misty Rivers; his 12-year-old daughter, Aliyia Kinning, Misty's half-sister; and Rivers' nephew, 12-year-old Warren Truehart.
Circuit Judge J. Peyton Farmer, describing the case as a ``very close call on involuntary manslaughter,'' said he didn't view it as one that warranted the maximum 30-year sentence.
Just before sentencing, Nguyen said through an interpreter that he ``feels sorry for what happened. ... He knows there's nothing he can do.''
Once Nguyen pulled his car over after the accident, a 12-pack of beer was thrown from the car by a passenger who later testified that Nguyen had consumed one beer that afternoon.
In the accident's immediate aftermath, the passenger, Khan Ho, initially claimed he was the driver in an effort to protect his friend who had a driving record.
But Nguyen came forward two days later after he learned of the accident's severity.
Farmer noted that Nguyen was acquitted of being drunk in public.
Nguyen, the son of an American soldier and a Vietnamese, came to Richmond when the family's resettlement was sponsored in 1989 by Stockton Memorial Baptist Church.
``He would gladly change places with'' the children, testified the church's secretary, Gloria Garris.
- Associated Press
Recount shows tax failed by 3 votes
LOVINGSTON - A three-judge panel has overturned the results of a meals tax referendum in Nelson County, saying a recount showed the tax proposal failed by three votes.
The judges' decision Thursday ends county supervisors' plan to impose the restaurant-meals tax, which they had hoped would raise up to $300,000 a year.
The judges announced the new vote tally after workers with the county elections office recounted ballots cast in the Nov. 8 referendum.
After reviewing the new count and taking into consideration several Election Day balloting discrepancies, the judges announced that the final tally was 2,105 votes against the meals tax and 2,102 for.
That annuls the previous count, announced on election night as 2,103 votes for the tax, 2,102 against.
Judges J. Michael Gamble, James M. Lumpkin and Ernest W. Ballou said there were discrepancies involving election booths in Gladstone, Shipman and Schuyler. In Gladstone, the original count showed 161 paper ballots, but the recount turned up 160. One polling booth in Shipman showed 394 votes cast according to one mechanical vote counter, yet another counter showed 399. Counters on a Schuyler machine also showed a discrepancy of one vote.
The judges did not say how they or the elections officials arrived at the new count.
- Associated Press
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB