ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230003
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said the evidence warranted raising the charge against James Reid from first-degree murder to capital murder - which could carry the death penalty - because a second felony was committed during the slaying.
The grand jury indicted the 51-year-old suspect for two more felonies, attempted rape and attempted robbery, according to court records.
Reid previously was charged only with first-degree murder.
Christiansburg police arrested Reid Oct.12 in connection with the stabbing death of Annie V. Lester, who was killed that same day.
Lester's cousin discovered her body in the bedroom of her Radford Road home. She was wearing nothing but tennis shoes, socks and knee-high hose, according to police.
Police arrested Reid after witnesses in the area of Lester's home reported seeing him with blood on his clothes and apparently intoxicated.
Reid told witnesses who asked about his bloodstained clothes that he had been in a "fight for love," police said.
A teen-age boy who lived in the same house as Reid testified in a Dec.10 preliminary hearing that Reid talked of murder days before Lester was killed.
The boy said Reid, who is black, told him he "wanted to kill all the black women in Christiansburg." The victim was also black.
The boy, whose name is not being used because of his age, also said that Reid drank and used cocaine for two or three days before the killing.
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Reid. color. KEYWORDS: NRVMURby CNB