ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
An autopsy has shown that a 17-year-old boy, whose body was found Sunday in a remote section of eastern Wythe County, died from exposure.
But the people who have admitted in statements to authorities that they left him there still face charges of abduction and murder.
The body of Ricky Lee Coleman, who lived with his mother in a trailer park near Max Meadows in Wythe County, was not found until early Sunday morning. He had been beaten, rolled in a blanket, placed in a car trunk, taken to the area Thursday night and thrown in a creek, according to statements from those accused in his death.
Jason Dennis Hibbs, 19, and Eric Dwayne Ball, 20, both of Max Meadows, are being held on charges of abduction and first-degree murder. A 17-year-old juvenile is also charged with abduction.
The suspects' statements put Coleman at the Hibbs home Thursday during a party at which some people were drinking vodka. Herman Hibbs, Jason Hibbs' father, said his son told family members that he hit Coleman once when Coleman refused to leave after breaking a lamp and turning over a TV set. Herman Hibbs said his son denied beating Coleman further.
Although the various statements were not fully in agreement with one another, they did pinpoint the area in which Coleman was dumped Thursday night. His mother reported him missing Saturday. She thought he had been staying with a friend since Thursday.
Dr. William Massello, assistant deputy chief medical examiner for Western Virginia, said Tuesday that the autopsy showed Coleman, who wasn't wearing a shirt, died from exposure due to cold. There was no beating or other trauma contributing to the death, he said.
It will take about two weeks to determine whether Coleman had any drugs or alcohol in his system, Massello said.
The temperature was not all that cold Thursday, but dropped rapidly to below freezing by noon Friday.
However, Massello said, "it wouldn't necessarily have to be freezing" for Coleman to have died of exposure before regaining consciousness Thursday. Other factors also could have been involved.
"If you're under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if you're unconscious, or lying in snow or water, which he was, you could still freeze to death," he said.
The creek in which Coleman was found apparently carried him a short distance away from where he was dumped, Sheriff Wayne Pike said Tuesday.
Apparently, Coleman had not attended school since October, when he was withdrawn from Pulaski County High School. He had alternated between that school and Fort Chiswell High School in Wythe County.
He attended Fort Chiswell High near Max Meadows for about six weeks each during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 school years. School records show that he performed satisfactorily the first time, but not the second.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB