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mandy by announcing that the division would be reactivated.
Paper seeks statements
ROCKY MOUNT — Statements made by two men to police in a murder case are the same as any other piece of evidence, says a Franklin County prosecutor who refuses to release the documents.
The prosecutor, Clifford Hapgood, likened the statements, described by lawyers as incriminating, to evidence such as a gun or a jar of moonshine.
“You wouldn’t pass around the jar to sniff to see if it really was illegal whiskey,” Hapgood said.
The Roanoke Times & World-News is seeking the statements, made by two Roanoke men to police after they were arrested on murder and robbery charges in August.
Disclosure of the statements could damage the defendants’ right to a fair trial and would, at the least, cause the trial to be moved elsewhere, Hapgood said.
Franklin County Circuit Judge B.A. Davis III said he would hear the issue Oct. 21.
The statements were presented to General District Judge W.N. Alexander at preliminary hearings Thursday for Walter Milton Correll, 24, and John Marshall Dalton, 18. Alexander reviewed the reports, certified the charges to the grand jury, and returned the documents to Hapgood. The documents were withheld from the press.
That process amounted to a closed hearing, newspaper attorney Thomas Lawson told Davis Friday.
“We contend this was a judicial proceeding and as such must be public,” he said.
Correll, Dalton and a 16-year-old are charged in the Aug. 10 stabbing death of Charles Bousman Jr., 24, of Wirtz. A preliminary hearing has not been set for the juvenile.
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