A Bully When I was In Elementary School **Caution- VIOLENCE**

WORD OF THE DAY:  harangue\huh-RANG\ noun   1 : a speech addressed to a public assembly.  *2 : a ranting speech or writing.  3 : lecture

This article appeared in The Bristol Herald Courier, October 6, 2005.

This didn't surprise me at all given how I recall his behavior when he was a child of only 8-10 years old.  We both attended the same elementary school.  He was always an exceptionally violent kid to the other students.  I recall one day on the school bus ride home from school, he had collected rubber bands throughout the day and had made an extended type of sling-shot which he devised on the end a hard ball made of rubber bands as well.  I remember him aiming it at a few of the students on the bus, me being one of them.  He used it to injure two students by aiming it and causing it to retract and the rubber band ball struck the two students in the face; one on the forehead and the other on the cheek, just below the eye.  This man was very violent as a child.  I recall it so vividly.

Ruben Travis Fields found guilty

TriCities.com Oct 6, 2:35 PM EDT


Ruben Travis Fields  

ABINGDON – Ruben Travis Fields, 43, was found guilty Thursday afternoon on "Capitol Murder", "Robbery" and "Illegal use of a firearm" related to the shooting death of Conley Jack Peters, a farmer from the Benhams community of Washington County, Va.

Peters, 64,  was shot in the back of the head and neck with a shotgun as he cut down a tree in some woods. The federal jury is now deliberating a sentencing recommendation.

 

***A follow-up Article in the Bristol Herald Courier October 7, 2005.

ABINGDON – Police didn’t find Ruben Travis Fields’ fingerprints at the murder scene.

They didn’t find his DNA.

They didn’t need it.

A jury deliberated a little more than two hours Thursday before finding Fields, 43, guilty of gunning down Conley Jack Peters during a robbery two years ago.

The jury recommended two life sentences in prison, with an extra three years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Peters’ brother George and sister Elizabeth Clark sat on the front row of the courtroom as the clerk read the verdict. They smiled as they left the courthouse.

"I’m happy it turned out like it did," the sister said. "I just don’t see why it took that long to put him away. He never should have been free to do that."

Fields, who’s been in and out of jail since he was about 12, showed no reaction as the clerk read the convictions – capital murder, robbery and illegal use of a gun. His girlfriend, Judell Millard, sat alone in a corner of the courtroom crying.

Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty because the killing didn’t involve extreme cruelty and because Fields lacked a history of convictions for violent crimes, Washington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Godfrey said.

"We didn’t feel the circumstances would justify the death penalty under state law," he said. "We discussed it with the victim’s family and felt life in prison was appropriate."

Fields, a drug abuser and repeat offender with more than 40 theft and burglary convictions, shot the 64-year-old Peters in the back of the head with a 12-gauge shotgun July 26, 2003, as the farmer cut down a tree in some woods off Wolf Run Road in the Benhams community.

Prosecutors said he wanted the money – about $30,000 – that Peters kept in the pockets of his overalls.

Friends found the farmer’s body later that afternoon with the chainsaw still running beside it.

"He was a good, simple man," Godfrey said. "His life was extinguished by a cowardly act. His final breath was drawn on the cold, damp ground of the land he loved."

Defense lawyers insisted that prosecutors couldn’t prove their case. Steve Milani, state capital defender, pointed to the lack of eyewitnesses and evidence found at the scene – no fingerprints, no footprints, no DNA, no clothing fibers.

"Did you hear any scientific evidence at this trial?" he demanded. "The burden in this case is on them. As soon as you start scratching your head, that’s reasonable doubt."

Damp sawdust and fallen leaves made searching for such clues almost impossible, detectives testified. Most shotgun pellets and wadding can’t be traced, and gunpowder residue disappears in a few hours, said experts from the state crime lab.

"This is not ‘CSI,’ " Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Nicole Price said. "This is not a crime that is neatly solved in an hour."

Investigators never found the money. Fields’ girlfriend said he told her he buried it in her yard in Bristol.

In the end, the evidence came down to Fields’ statement to police – a three-hour tape of rambling, often contradictory answers that even he admitted sounded suspicious – accounts from friends and neighbors who said he flashed wads of cash in the days after the killing, and testimony from friends inside and outside jail who said he bragged to them about shooting an old man.

"I think the jury had to balance all those things," defense lawyer Barry Proctor said. "He was consistent all the waythrough (in denying thekilling)."

Fields admitted to being within a few miles of the murder scene that day but claimed he was there hunting for ginseng and other herbs. He carried his mother’s 12-gauge shotgun with him – something he never explained.

He said at various times that he used the gun as a walking stick, to shoot snakes or to shoot fish in the river. He said he panicked when he saw police cars and fled across the state line to Tennessee, fearing he might get arrested on unpaid child support charges, then turned himself in after learning he was a suspect.

Prosecutors said a story that flimsy amounts to evidence on its own.

"Ruben Fields went hunting," Price said. "But certainly not for ginseng."

She held up Peters’ shoes – the old, tattered brogans he wore on the day of his death.

"This is not ginseng," she said. "It’s like killing a child in the woods. He’s an easy target."

Defense lawyers said they plan to appeal.

No sentencing date had been set Thursday.

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