ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG
SOURCE: Associated Press
A killer who wrote rambling letters asking for the death penalty may not be able to understand his sentence, his lawyer told a judge Wednesday.
A Rockingham County Circuit Court judge planned to rule Wednesday on an agreement in which Anthony Stephen May pleaded guilty to knifing his 75-year-old neighbor last April in exchange for life in prison without parole. May entered his plea in November.
But May's lawyer asked for a delay, saying the letters May wrote to a newspaper and to the judge requesting capital punishment call May's sanity into question.
``There is a question about what he understands,'' lawyer William Helsley said. ``Another competency evaluation should be done.''
Helsley also said May is having hallucinations.
Circuit Judge Porter Graves put off sentencing May, and said he will consider next week whether to grant another mental evaluation. If the judge denies another evaluation, he will sentence May under the original plea agreement on Jan. 18.
``I'm in jail for a harsh crime and I also think that I should get death for this crime if I have to I will request it from Mr. Graves,'' May wrote in a letter to the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg.
Commonwealth's Attorney Douglas Stark argued that the letters have no bearing on the plea bargain, and May should be sentenced quickly. May has not asked to withdraw from the plea agreement, Stark said.
In letters he mailed to the newspaper during the last two weeks, May also wrote about American family values, the U.S. role in Bosnia and the Bible. He did not admit killing Mary Catherine Miller, his neighbor.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB