Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINCHESTER LENGTH: Medium
A 12-year-old girl spent weeks imprisoned in a cold basement without food before her mother's boyfriend slammed her head through a wall and beat her to death, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Norman Hoverter attacked the child in a rage after she spilled the tin can he forced her to use as a toilet, the prosecutor said.
A passer-by found Valerie Smelser's naked body dumped by a rural roadside and curled in a fetal position Jan. 23. She weighed just 51 pounds.
Hoverter pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and abduction Tuesday in a plea agreement.
``This was the work of a mean, hateful person,'' Frederick County Commonwealth's Attorney Lawrence Ambrogi said after Hoverter was led from the courtroom in leg irons. ``It is inconceivable how anyone could do this to a child.''
In court, Ambrogi read a litany of cruelty and torture visited on the girl before she died. Hoverter locked her in the basement or the kitchen, sometimes chaining her to a door overnight, Ambrogi said. The child slept on a dirt floor covered in feces - the same floor where she died, the prosecutor said.
``In her desperation she stole food, and he punished her by locking her in the basement, sometimes for days at a time,'' Ambrogi said.
Ambrogi said he doesn't know why Hoverter singled out Valerie for punishment. Three other siblings lived in the squalid house with Hoverter and their mother, Wanda Smelser.
Wanda Smelser also is charged with murder.
The child was not allowed to eat with her siblings, and lost about 20 pounds in the weeks she was tortured.
Valerie was not allowed to use the family toilet or bathe in the family shower, Ambrogi said. Instead, Hoverter allegedly hosed her off in the yard.
On the day Valerie died, Hoverter had ordered her to carry her urine can to the back yard and empty it. Ambrogi said. The child apparently stumbled and spilled the urine on the kitchen floor.
``He beat her, kicked her and ... rubbed her face in it,'' Ambrogi said. ``Then he made her clean it up.''
Hoverter also slammed the child's head through the drywall near the basement door, and put his own fist through the wall as well. Hoverter later saw a doctor for his injury, but no one attended to the child, Ambrogi said.
Hoverter kicked Valerie down the basement stairs, where she died of brain swelling, Ambrogi said.
Valerie had been sodomized shortly before her death, and prosecutors hoped tests would allow them to charge Hoverter with capital murder and seek the death penalty. Because DNA tests on the semen were inconclusive, prosecutors had to settle for the lesser charge.
Hoverter blamed the child's mother for most of the mistreatment.
``Mr. Hoverter's contention would be that the prime mover, the aggressor in this case, was the mother, and that he was the bystander,'' said J. Michael Solak, Hoverter's court-appointed lawyer.
Wanda Smelser's attorney declined to say whether she would also enter a plea. A grand jury has not taken up her case.
Hoverter entered an Alford plea, which means he admitted prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. The plea does not affect the length of his sentence. He is not allowed to appeal.
``He pleaded guilty, and that's good enough for me,'' Ambrogi said after the brief hearing. He said he did not want Wanda Smelser's other children to have to testify at Hoverter's trial, which was scheduled for August.
The children are in foster care.
Hoverter could face life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Aug. 31.
The case left Virginia's network of social agencies scrambling to explain how abuse that social workers had long suspected was not confirmed.
Wanda Smelser stayed a step ahead of the authorities by moving often. She also obtained a religious exemption from sending her children to public schools.
Under Virginia law, school officials are barred from checking on the educational progress of children who have a religious exemption, but the children must pass standardized tests.
by CNB