By KEITH EPPS
Thomas Leroy Newton III got some really good news, then some not-so-good news yesterday in Stafford Circuit Court.
The good news came when Judge H. Harrison Braxton Jr. tossed out a felony murder charge that could have netted Newton up to 40 years in prison.
But several hours later, a jury found the 28-year-old Stafford man guilty of distributing heroin and recommended that he serve five years in prison.
Newton could have gotten up to 40 years on the heroin charge. The five-year term was the minimum.
The charges against Newton stemmed from the Dec. 7, 2004, death of 53-year-old Craig Alan Koerbel.
Koerbel was found dead in his home at 905 Carroll Lane in southern Stafford the day after a witness said Newton supplied him with a batch of heroin. Koerbel died from a heroin overdose.
Prosecutor George Elsasser said that although Newton didn't intend for Koerbel to die, the felony murder charge was appropriate because Koerbel died as the result of the heroin Newton provided.
Defense attorney Jim Ilijevich successfully argued that there was insufficient evidence linking Newton with the fatal heroin overdose.
Ilijevich put on a witness who heard Koerbel snoring the morning after he got the drugs from Newton. He argued that the fatal dose could have come from someone else.
Judge Braxton threw out the charge without giving the jury a chance to consider it, saying it was possible that someone else gave Koerbel heroin the day he died.
The key prosecution witness in yesterday's trial was Spotsylvania resident George L. Cole.
Cole testified that he and Newton went to Koerbel's home about 4:30 p.m. Dec. 6 to use heroin.
Cole said that he saw Newton hand Koerbel heroin, some of which Cole and Koerbel later snorted. Cole said Newton injected heroin into his body with a needle.
After 30 or 40 minutes, Cole said, he and Newton left Koerbel alone watching television. He said Newton dropped off some heroin at another man's house before going to a club in the Four-Mile Fork area of Spotsylvania where Newton's girlfriend was working.
Later that night, Cole said he took Newton back to Koerbel's home, where Newton spent the night and attended a court hearing in Richmond that next morning.
The next day, Cole said, Newton called him "freaking out" about Koerbel's death.
Cole said Newton told him to tell no one, especially police, that they'd been using heroin at Koerbel's home the day before his death.
"I felt a little guilty, too, because I'd driven [Newton] over there," Cole said.
Ilijevich suggested that Cole had more than that to feel guilty about. He pointed out several statements Cole made at a preliminary hearing that differed from what he said yesterday, and he said Cole was trying to "smear" Newton to protect himself.
Elsasser said Cole was credible and said his differing statements were the result of him being a "drug addict instead of a professional witness."
One of the two defense witnesses called by Ilijevich was Michael Miller, a Spotsylvania man who is serving an 18-month sentence he got last year for killing a man outside a Spotsylvania motel.
Miller said that Cole called him at the Rappahannock Regional Jail last year to solicit advice about cooperating in the investigation.
The jury also recommended that Newton pay a $9,000 fine. He will be formally sentenced March 27.
To reach KEITH EPPS:
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com