ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
ABINGDON
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 24. 1997.
The caption under a photo of the Corner Store in Southwest Roanoke in
Wednesday's newspaper was incorrect. It should have said that the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms believes a second Molotov cocktail was
thrown into an adjoining apartment the night after the Corner Store was
firebombed. Whether the ATF's suspicion is true is a disputed issue that
will be resolved when the defendants go to trial.
The government says the Abed ``crime family'' later killed a potential witness to the bombing and his girlfriend.
Someone might have been watching in the pre-dawn darkness that winter morning, but Richard Chisom Jr. went ahead and hurled the Molotov cocktail through the window of the Corner Store.
Chisom told federal agents he felt he had no choice but to complete the firebombing of the Roanoke convenience store at the insistence of his friends, three members of the Abed family.
Later, the government alleges, those friends went back and killed the man they thought saw them, along with his girlfriend.
Chisom, 28, is the first member of a Roanoke group accused of being an organized-crime ring to admit wrongdoing in a federal case involving charges of racketeering, arson for hire, and several other crimes. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Abingdon Tuesday to three of the charges against him and will provide evidence against his co-defendants.
Pleading guilty was a tough decision for him, said his attorney David Scyphers, but Chisom said he wanted to get the crime off his conscience and get on with his life. Chisom remains in the Washington County Jail in Abingdon, and Scyphers said he will not ask for bond. The prosecution fears for his safety now that he has agreed to testify against the others.
Chisom moved to Abingdon soon after the fire in January 1995 and cut off contact with the Abeds, his attorney said. He has worked at the post office since.
Chisom did not testify Tuesday. Tom Gallagher, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, testified that Chisom told investigators that he met several of the Abeds in the fall of 1994 at the Pizza King, a restaurant on Plantation Road across from his job at the Elizabeth Arden plant. He would stop in for a beer after work and got to know some of the younger Abeds.
The Pizza King was owned by Abed Jamil, who is accused of leading the crime ring along with his brother Joseph Abbott (who legally changed his name from Abed years ago). Jamil's son, Amar Abed, managed the restaurant.
The restaurant kept frozen pizzas on hand to throw in the oven in case a customer ordered one, but the main product sold was drugs, Gallagher testified. Chisom bought powder cocaine there, and the Abeds also sold crack cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said.
Three of the Abeds and their girlfriends soon moved in with Chisom: 25-year-old Amar, his 22-year-old brother Obayda and their 25-year-old cousin, Rayed "Rod" Abed, Abbott's son.
According to Gallagher, Chisom claims he at first turned down Rod and Obayda's request that he help them burn the Corner Store on 13th Street Southwest, but changed his mind after Fahed Tawalbeh offered them $2,000. Tawalbeh owned the rival Speedway Market across the street. His business had been hurt after he was convicted of food-stamp fraud in 1994, losing the right to accept food stamps and to sell alcohol.
Gallagher testified that there were at least two meetings at the Speedway to discuss the Corner Store arson.
By Chisom's account, on the morning of the fire, Rod Abed showed up with the Molotov cocktail, which typically is a gasoline-filled bottle with a rag that is lit and thrown. Rod drove and remained in the car; Amar served as look-out under the big tree behind the store, and Obayda stood watch out front.
Chisom said he heard something, and Amar concurred, but told him to go through with it anyway, according to Chisom's account. The fire broke out before 6 a.m.
Chisom told investigators that he was scared they had been seen setting the fire. That evening, the three Abeds left his apartment, and when they returned, Amar repeatedly assured him, "There are no witnesses."
Barbara Hardy and her boyfriend, Michael Thomas, died in a fire at 9:45 p.m. that night. Hardy's apartment is attached to the Corner Store, and the window she leapt out of during the fire overlooks the backyard where Chisom threw the firebomb.
The three Abeds are charged with killing Hardy and Thomas as part of the racketeering conspiracy. The fire in Hardy's apartment was originally ruled an accident, but an ATF lab said later that it appeared to be arson by Molotov cocktail.
Chisom said he was supposed to get $800 of the $2,000 payment because he did the throwing, but the Abeds gave him just $300 the next day and said Tawalbeh would give him the rest later.
Chisom pleaded guilty Tuesday to three charges. Three other charges were dismissed. He faces 40 years to life, but likely will receive a lighter sentence by testifying against his co-defendants, something attorneys for the Abeds and Tawalbeh will use to try to undermine his credibility.
Tawalbeh's attorney, Harwell "Sam" Darby Jr., said his client "continues to maintain his innocence and is confident he will be acquitted."
Gallagher testified that Chisom's account, and his claim to not be part of the killings, fits with other witnesses' accounts.
All the Abeds who were charged in last month's federal indictment in Roanoke are in custody.
At the Corner Store, they were happy to hear of the guilty plea Tuesday. The owners rebuilt after the fire, but it cost them about $50,000 in repairs and lost inventory.
"We lost money," said Nona Haislip, who owns the store with her son. "But what's money to two lives?"
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL THE ROANOKE TIMES. Corner Store managerby CNBSandra Perry looks at the bricked-up window that the Molotov
cocktail was thrown through the morning the store burned in January
1995. The tall brick building with a boarded-up window in the
background is where the second Molotov cocktail was thrown that
night, killing a potential witness and his girlfriend.