Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510160043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Arthur J. Manns pleaded no contest to charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the May 14 shooting of Vickie Michelle Nichols, 31, at the Lincoln Terrace housing project.
He faces a maximum term of life plus three years in prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 21.
After arguing with Nichols in the 1700 block of Dunbar Street Northwest, Manns got a gun, waited until she came out of an apartment and shot her after she apologized to him, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel.
Nagel gave the following summary of the evidence at a hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court:
About 4 a.m. May 14, Nichols exchanged insults with a bystander after arriving at Lincoln Terrace. Manns, who was standing nearby, joined in the conversation as it became more heated.
"I told her to get out of the projects, and I didn't want to see her face here again," Manns told police Detective S.P. Lukacs in a statement introduced as evidence Friday.
After Nichols went to a nearby apartment, Manns told a friend that he was going to kill her. The friend told police that he did not take Manns seriously.
Manns then took a .25-caliber handgun from a nearby car, folded his arms to conceal the weapon in his hand, and waited for Nichols.
When Nichols came outside a few minutes later, she apologized to Manns and began to walk away when he opened fire, Nagel said. Nichols was struck in the spine and the shoulder blade and died several hours later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Police have said previously that a crack cocaine transaction had occurred in the area of the shooting minutes earlier, but no evidence was presented Friday to suggest the shooting was drug-related.
Manns, who was on probation at the time of the shooting from a charge in juvenile court, did not testify Friday, and defense attorney Ray Byrd presented no evidence. Manns was returned to the Roanoke City Jail to await sentencing.
by CNB