ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
WINCHESTER - A woman who admitted to drug and other charges tried to withdraw the guilty plea at her sentencing by saying that another one of her multiple personalities had committed the crimes.
Karen Lea McAdams, 35, pleaded guilty late last year to forging and uttering checks, obtaining drugs by false pretenses and obtaining money by false pretenses.
She was to have been sentenced April 3, but after she named 14 of her alleged 20 personalities at that hearing, Winchester Circuit Judge John E. Wetsel Jr. ordered a mental evaluation.
Allegedly speaking as 21-year-old ``Rachel'' at her sentencing Tuesday, McAdams said a third personality named Bonnie had committed the offenses.
Public Defender William Crane said the defendant changed personalities at least twice during the 30-minute court proceeding.
Wetsel said McAdams was ruled competent at her last examination and when she pleaded guilty, and he declined to allow the withdrawal.
``At the time it was made, she fully understood the consequences of that plea,'' he said. He sentenced her to 15 years, with all but five years suspended, and recommended treatment by the state Department of Retardation and Mental Health. |- Associated Press
Train kills man
sitting on tracks
WILLIAMSBURG - A man failed to heed an Amtrak passenger train's whistle and was killed Tuesday, authorities said.
The victim was identified by state police as Kenneth C. Ayers, 40.
Amtrak's Colonial was en route to Newport News when the conductor saw the man sitting on the tracks, looking away from the train, state police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame said.
``The conductor blew the horn several times but got no response,'' she said.
The train was traveling about 70 mph. The impact knocked Ayers' body about 50 feet, said Pat Martin, a district fire chief in James City County.
An Amtrak spokesman said the train arrived in Newport News more than two hours late. |- Associated Press
Retarded man jailed
in father's death
SUFFOLK - A man described by his family as mentally retarded was charged with beating his 81-year-old father to death after an argument.
Police said Roger Lee Vann, 40, apparently beat his father with the older man's cane. He fled to the woods behind the family's house and was taken into custody four hours later. He was jailed on a homicide charge.
Police said Vann argued with his mother after she asked him to gather firewood. His father intervened, police said, and the son began arguing with him.
Relatives told The Virginian-Pilot that the younger Vann was retarded and was taking medication to control temper outbursts and seizures.
A cousin said Vann spent time in a mental hospital several years ago after hitting and seriously injuring his brother. |- Associated Press
Norton miner
dies in cave-in
WISE - Authorities are investigating the death of a 39-year-old Norton miner who was killed when a portion of a mine roof fell on him, according to a spokesman from the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
Jerry Adams had been a miner for more than 10 years and had worked at the Navajo No. 2 mine for 13 months, spokesman Mike Abbott said Tuesday.
Adams was killed early Monday. His death marked Virginia's first mine-related fatality of 1996. |- Associated Press
Video store owner
fined $25,000
GLOUCESTER - The owner of an adult-video store has been fined $25,000 for selling obscene movies.
As part of a plea agreement reached Tuesday, the owner of North of York Video and News Center will abandon a legal battle to reopen viewing booths in the Gloucester Point store.
``I think we are in the same place we would have been if we had gone to trial,'' said Commonwealth's Attorney Robert D. Hicks.
Ronald L. Marshall, president of the corporation that owns the store, was not in court for the plea agreement.
John E. McFadden Jr., a clerk at the store, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge involving selling a video to an undercover officer. Five felony charges against McFadden were dismissed, and the misdemeanor charge also will be dismissed if McFadden doesn't violate any laws for a year. |- Associated Press
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