THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994 TAG: 9406010489
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JODY R. SNIDER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940601 LENGTH: ISLE OF WIGHT
It was the second plea in the same case for Wayno, a hospital lab technician charged with assaulting an 11-year-old boy from his Smithfield church on several occasions in 1990.
{REST} The boy reported the events to his mother two years after he said they occurred, Commonwealth's Attorney W. Parker Councill said.
Wayno was indicted on four counts of sodomy and four counts of indecent liberties with a child, all felonies, in September 1992.
He pleaded guilty last July to one count of indecent liberties with a child and three counts of sexual battery.
But before he was sentenced, Wayno asked Circuit Judge Westbrook J. Parker in November for permission to withdraw his plea.
Three teens later testified that Wayno's accuser admitted he had lied about being molested.
Parker ordered a new trial by jury on the original charges, which was set to begin Tuesday.
But at the last minute, Wayno decided the risk was too great.
The maximum penalty for sodomy is life in prison, and a charge of indecent liberties with a child carries a possible prison term of one to five years.
After the plea Tuesday, Parker sentenced Wayno to one year in jail on each of four misdemeanor counts of sexual battery of a child.
Wayno may be allowed to perform community service in place of going to jail, his lawyer, Richard G. Brydges, said.
``The reason for the plea agreement was because it was a difficult case,'' Parker told jurors.
``It was a crap shoot,'' Brydges said later of the trial that never took place. ``This was a sure thing.''
{KEYWORDS} CHILD MOLESTER SEX CRIME TRIAL VERDICT
by CNB