ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Jerry Griffis will not be allowed to attend the funeral of his infant son, a Roanoke judge ruled Wednesday in ordering that he be held without bond.
Franklin County authorities say they are investigating the death of Griffis' 5-month-old son, Cordell Adam Griffis, as suspicious.
Griffis has been questioned in connection with his son's death, but he is being held on unrelated charges.
In 1990, Griffis was convicted in Florida of six felony counts of sexually abusing a 5-year-old boy. He skipped his trial and had eluded authorities for six years.
Griffis, 26, had been held on a $30,000 bond since he was arrested Sunday at a Roanoke hospital, where his Florida record caught up with him after doctors became suspicious about his son's injuries and asked police to investigate.
Shortly after the boy died Sunday from causes that are still undetermined, Griffis was arrested on a fugitive warrant after police learned of his convictions through a national computer database.
At a hearing Wednesday in Roanoke General District Court, Judge Julian Raney granted a motion by prosecutors to hold Griffis without bond.
"The risk of flight, if he was to make bond, and the potential threat to the community, given the nature of his convictions, are such that it is prudent to hold him without bond," Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said.
Assistant Public Defender John Varney had asked Raney to allow Griffis to attend his son's funeral Friday, either on a reduced bond or in the custody of Roanoke sheriff's deputies. Raney denied the request.
After learning that Griffis had been arrested in Roanoke, prosecutors in Gainesville, Fla., asked Caldwell's office to seek a bond increase. Court records show that Griffis fled Florida before he could be sentenced on sexual abuse convictions that carried a maximum punishment of more than four life sentences in prison.
Griffis has been living in Franklin County for the past three years. His pregnant wife called 911 from the family's residence in Henry early Sunday to report that their son was not breathing. He died later that day at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley after his parents decided to remove him from life support.
Caldwell said he had spoken Wednesday with Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood, and it was his understanding that authorities are investigating the death as a homicide.
Preliminary autopsy results were inconclusive, and the medical examiner is waiting for laboratory test results before making a finding on the cause of death.
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