ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
Thomas Herman Jones will spend less time in prison for a murder conviction than he did while awaiting trial.
As part of a plea agreement reached Wednesday, Jones abandoned his argument that Roanoke prosecutors violated his right to a speedy trial on a 1991 murder charge, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Jones, 27, was indicted six years ago on charges of killing Clifford D. Long at Ferncliff Apartments in Northwest Roanoke. Long, 40, was shot in the chest during a drug-related argument the night of Nov. 20, 1991.
But by the time Jones was charged in February 1992, he was serving a 70-month sentence in federal prison on drug and firearms charges.
During his stay in prison, Jones made repeated requests to be transferred to Roanoke for trial on the murder charge. Prosecutors violated his right to a speedy trial by not having him brought back, Jones claimed in a motion to have the murder charge dismissed.
Prosecutors have contended that they did not receive the legal forms that Jones says he sent, and argue that they made a "good faith" effort to have him transferred. Jones' lawyers said they have the paperwork to prove that he took all the necessary steps under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act, which requires an inmate to be tried within 180 days of making a formal request.
Judge Clifford Weckstein was scheduled to consider Jones' motion to dismiss the charge at a hearing Wednesday in Roanoke Circuit Court.
But after about an hour's delay, lawyers announced they had reached an agreement. Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell offered to reduce the first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder, and to drop a charge that Jones possessed a firearm as a convicted felon.
In return, Jones agreed to plead guilty and receive five years for murder and two years for use of a firearm, to be served consecutively. At the time of Long's death, second-degree murder carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Public Defender Ray Leven said that while Jones had a sound legal argument to have the charge dismissed, he preferred the assurance of the plea agreement over the uncertainty of a trial.
"Mr. Jones is of the decision that he would rather know what is going to happen today, instead of taking chances," Leven said. Because the crime happened before parole was abolished in 1995, Jones will probably have to serve about four years, Caldwell said.
Caldwell acknowledged that Jones' motion to dismiss the charge was a factor in his decision to offer the plea agreement. But the more important consideration, he said, was the fact that witnesses to the shooting had made conflicting statements about what could have been a killing in self-defense.
Given the witness problems and the passage of time, "I think that posed a real risk of litigation for the commonwealth," he said.
Caldwell noted that relatives of Long - two of whom attended Wednesday's hearing - had accepted the plea agreement because it assured a conviction. The relatives declined to comment as they left the courtroom after the hearing.
In summarizing the evidence against Jones, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony said police were called to an apartment complex on Ferncliff Avenue about 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, 1991.
They found Long dead from a gunshot wound to the chest. Two witnesses said Jones fired a gun twice - once into the sidewalk and then into Long's chest - during an argument about a drug transaction.
Had the case gone to trial, Jones might have claimed self-defense, Leven said. Long had a record of violence that included a murder conviction, and an autopsy showed there were drugs in his system at the time of his death.
After Jones was released from prison last summer, his lawyers pursued his motion to dismiss the charge. Anthony said she was prepared to argue that prosecutors did all they could in a bureaucratic tangle to have Jones transferred.
"If you believe the defendant's evidence, he was trying desperately to get tried, and we were trying desperately to get him tried," she said. "We just couldn't get the system to mesh."
Jones had been free on bond awaiting trial - until earlier this month, when he was arrested in Montgomery County and charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
In the years since Jones was indicted for murder, both prosecutors and defense attorneys have had difficulty obtaining records from a federal prison in Petersburg where Jones was incarcerated. Prosecutors said it stymied their efforts to have Jones transferred to Roanoke for trial, and a hearing last month on his motion to dismiss was continued after defense lawyers said they encountered the same problem.
But as the final details of the plea agreement were worked out Wednesday, a prison employee subpoenaed to testify sat outside the courtroom - holding a manila envelope stuffed with documents.
In accepting the plea agreement, Weckstein noted the woman's presence. "I suspect that helped resolve the case," he said.
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