ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210105
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: STAUNTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
AFTER SPENDING 15 months in jail for a crime everyone now agrees he didn't commit, a Culpeper youth wants to go home in time for Christmas.
A teen-ager with an IQ of 75 and a criminal record has asked Gov. George Allen to free him from a prison where he has spent 15 months for a crime that even his accusers now concede he did not commit.
Christopher Prince, 19, is serving time in Staunton Correctional Center for breaking and entering with the intent to commit a felony.
But a 13-year-old girl who had claimed Prince had entered her bedroom recanted her story two months ago. The girl's 12-year-old friend, who claimed she saw Prince in the house, also admitted that she never actually saw him.
The police officers who arrested Prince and the prosecutor who handled his case also agree that Prince didn't commit the crime.
But in October, Culpeper Circuit Judge John R. Cullen turned down a request by the prosecutor to free Prince.
Prince's new attorney, Cary Greenberg of Alexandria, has motions to free Prince pending in the Culpeper courts and the state Court of Appeals.
``It's rough in here,'' Prince said in a story The Washington Post published Wednesday. ``I'm trying to keep my head down, and I'm counting the days. But I'm mad. How can somebody lie on me like that? I want to get home for Christmas,'' he said.
Prince followed his previous attorney's advice and entered a plea acknowledging that prosecutors had the evidence to convict him but admitting no guilt.
Prince, who was 18 at the time, was arrested and accused of breaking into a house in Culpeper on Feb. 9, 1994, and telling the 13-year-old girl he intended to have sex with her. The girl and her 12-year-old friend picked him out of a police lineup the next day.
A month before the break-in, Prince had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl. He also had spent 90 days in a juvenile detention center for stealing one of his father's guns.
Prince was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the break-in, with six years suspended.Rex Edwards of Culpeper, Prince's former attorney, said he advised Prince to enter the so-called Alford plea because he feared a jury would find out about his criminal record and impose a harsher sentence.
Vernon Prince, a Postal Service employee and 25-year Army veteran, said his son had been in trouble but was always honest when confronted. When a private investigator the family hired started to pursue the case, the girls' story crumbled.Both girls admitted lying, but only after Prince's family agreed not to sue their families.
``The lie got bigger and bigger, and my son paid for it,'' Mary Prince, 44, of Culpeper, told the newspaper.
The families of both girls now say police investigators pressured the girls into identifying Prince. Police deny the allegation<.
LENGTH: Medium: 61 linesby CNB