THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290279 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A man who police said shot his brother and killed the brother's girlfriend Thanksgiving night has been charged with capital murder. He could receive the death penalty if convicted.
The suspect, Paul B. Hinkle, had already been charged with first-degree murder. Detective Gene Eller upgraded the charge to capital murder Monday after adding a robbery charge.
Eller said Hinkle confronted his younger brother, William Hinkle, in the El Camino Motel on Diamond Springs Road and demanded money. During the robbery, police said, William Hinkle, 35, and his girlfriend, Janet Cope, 40, were shot. Cope later died.
Eller said the case is still under investigation and declined to provide more details.
Police said that Paul Hinkle, 39, left the motel in Cope's car shortly before William Hinkle staggered into the motel office just after 7:30 p.m.
Paul Hinkle was later arrested in Chesapeake by an officer investigating a speeding and reckless driver, police said.
The car's registration is one reason police linked the arrest in Chesapeake to the murder in Virginia Beach.
Paul Hinkle also faces one count of malicious assault in the shooting of his brother, who is recovering, and two counts of using a firearm during a felony.
He is being held in the city jail without bond.
The Thanksgiving homicide was the city's 34th of the year, nine more than were recorded in all of 1993. Only two slayings this year are unsolved.
KEYWORDS: MURDER ASSAULT SHOOTING ARREST by CNB