Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN TEBBENS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
A Floyd County man accused of beating his 18-year-old live-in girlfriend to death June 14 had a first-degree murder charge against him certified to the Floyd County grand jury Wednesday.
Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge J.L. Tompkins sent the case against David Joel Hall to a Dec. 1 grand jury and rejected a defense motion to dismiss the charge or reduce it to second-degree murder.
Hall, 33, is charged in the death of Ellen Marjorie Plocki. A medical examiner said Plocki died of a blood clot caused by blunt-force injuries.
Plocki, of Austinville in Carroll County, had lived with Hall at a garage in the Willis section of Floyd County for less than six months, according to her mother, Nancy Lintecum.
Hall stoically listened to testimony of an acquaintance, Cecil Wayne Brown, who testified that Hall made him look at Plocki's badly beaten body.
Brown testified that Hall waved for him to stop as he drove through Willis the afternoon of June 14. They went to a gas station and as they returned, Brown said, Hall asked him to come into his house to see something.
"When I walked through," Brown said, "I saw her feet wrapped up in a blanket. I turned around and he had a gun on me ... straight at my head. He kept telling me to look at her. He told me that's what I would look like if I ever told."
Brown testified that Hall allowed him to leave after he promised not to say anything. Brown said he returned home, called his mother and told her about the incident, and she called police.
Brown said he knew who Plocki was, but barely recognized her body. "It was sort of hard to recognize her because she had been beat so bad."
Sheriff Tom Higgins testified that officers at the scene thought Hall was inside the building with a gun and were waiting outside for a tactical team to arrive.
Instead, Higgins said, Hall drove up to the garage about 7 p.m. and was arrested on traffic charges.
Police entered the building and found a makeshift bed of two couches and a mattress on top. "A blanket rolled up on the mattress was on the bed. There appeared to be something in it. We unwrapped it and there appeared to be a body of a young female."
Higgins said the body was badly bruised and appeared to have been cleaned. "There was no blood, just big bruises on the side of her face."
William Massello, assistant chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, said Plocki was clad only in underpants. Plocki was 4-foot-9 and weighed less than 100 pounds. Hall weighs 160 pounds, an arrest warrant said.
Her body was covered in bruises and scratches, Massello said, including extensive bruises around her genital and anal area.
Commonwealth's Attorney Gino Williams said he had not ruled out the possibility that rape occurred. He is awaiting lab results from blood samples.
Hall is being held in the Floyd County Jail under a $135,000 bond, which had been reduced from $300,000.
Judge Tompkins also found Hall guilty of driving under the influence and having no state inspection sticker. Hall was given a $1,000 fine for the DUI charge and 12 months in jail. He was fined $25 for not having a state inspection sticker.
by CNB