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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 14, 1995                   TAG: 9509140044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

2 GUILTY IN SLAYING SCHEME

A Roanoke man and woman, once a couple but now just co-defendants, were convicted Wednesday of trying to have the woman's husband killed so they could be together.

No one was injured in the scheme, which flopped when the hit man hired by the couple went to police officials in April and told them of the plan.

Robert D. Lawrence, 41, and Irene A. Tucker, 24, pleaded no contest to charges of soliciting to commit a felony. Both received suspended 31/2-year prison sentences and two years of probation.

The plea agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court was at the request of Curtis Tucker, the target of the scheme, who has since reunited with his wife. Curtis Tucker had asked prosecutors not to send his wife to jail, Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said.

Detective M.S. Rubeiz testified that police learned of the crime after Nelson Decker - Irene Tucker's brother - told police that Lawrence had given him a handgun and said he could keep it if he killed Curtis Tucker. Irene Tucker later admitted that she was also part of the plan, Rubeiz said.

But defense attorneys William Lindsey and William Fitzpatrick said their clients were not serious about having Tucker killed.

In accepting the plea agreement, Judge Robert P. Doherty ordered Lawrence and Irene Tucker to have no contact with each other.

by CNB