ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FLOYD
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
A Floyd County jury decided Thursday that convicted killer David Joel Hall should receive life plus 16 years in prison for the beating death of his girlfriend and five other charges.
Hall, 34, had pleaded not guilty to the charges that he beat his 18-year-old girlfriend to death June 14 in the room where they lived at a Willis garage and that he threatened an acquaintance.
An 11-woman, one-man jury began hearing the case Tuesday. The jury returned late Wednesday afternoon with guilty verdicts, then met Thursday morning to determine a sentence.
Hall was given a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Ellen Marjorie Plocki, who was found dead atop a makeshift bed of a mattress and two couches. Her badly beaten body was wrapped in a blanket.
The jury also sentenced Hall to 16 years in prison for abducting Cecil Wayne Brown and holding a shotgun on him as Hall forced him to look at the body and made him promise not to tell anyone; possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony; unauthorized use of a vehicle that was being repaired at the garage; and driving after being declared a habitual offender.
Hall also was fined $1,500.
Virginia's no-parole law applies in Hall's sentence, because the murder was committed after Jan. 1, 1995.
Hall could apply for geriatric parole when he reaches age 60, Commonwealth's Attorney Gino Williams said.
Hall will be formally sentenced April 15 by Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs.
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