ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, February 9, 1996               TAG: 9602090060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK 

TEEN WHO BEAT CEMETERY OWNER GETS 5 YEARS

An 18-year-old man was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for beating the 66-year-old owner of a Roanoke cemetery with a metal pipe the day after the teen-ager had asked for a job there.

Toby Antonio Preston received the sentence from Roanoke Circuit Judge Robert Doherty.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Phillips said Preston went to Williams Memorial Park July 20 and asked owner Clarence Lynch about a job. The next day, he returned wearing a mask and attacked Lynch with a metal pipe in a cemetery office.

The following month, Preston returned to the cemetery and was trying to break into a building when members of Lynch's family spotted him and chased him away, according to the evidence. He was arrested a short time later.

Preston received four years for unlawful wounding and one year for statutory burglary.

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