Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 2

PEOPLE MORE A2 Friday, March 19, 1993 Fergie tries to regain favor jr i I I lr-" C-w. 3 Louise Paulett, 72, managed Raleigh Poyner Continued from A1 in prison. Poyner, 36, spent his final day visiting with his sister-in-law, two nieces, several clergymen, lawyers and supporters. Poyner refused requests for interviews earlier in the day. His two-paragraph statement was filled with Biblical references.

Poyner said he had confessed his sins and asked for forgiveness. "Unfortunately I don't think any of us can find it in our hearts to do that," said Pam Orsini, the daughter of Carolyn J. Hedrick, Poyners last victim. "They always get real religious at the last minute, don't they?" Orsini said. The execution drew few outsiders to the prison complex in rural Greensville County.

Twenty minutes before the execution, just four members of Virginians Against the Death Penalty stood outside in the grassy area marked off for death-penalty protesters. They had come from a candlelight vigil in Richmond. Sister Eileen Reilly said the group had planned to do the same outside the prison, but wind prevented them from lighting their candles. She said sub-freezing temperatures may have kept some opponents at home, but she admitted that it has become more difficult to generate interest as the pace of executions quickens. She still hopes her presence will help end capital punishment in Virginia.

"I'd like to think so, but the evidence is to the contrary," said Reilly. "I can't let this happen tonight without someone here to express the public outrage." The field across the road, which is set aside for supporters, was empty. An hour earlier a man in a rental car drove off after being told he could not get closer to the prison. He told corrections officers at the front gate that he had a personal interest in the case. "He killed my mother," said the man, who identified himself only as the son of Louise Paulett.

Poyner is the 195th man executed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty does not violate the constitution. He was the 19th man in Virginia to be put to death since the state resumed executions in 1982. Attorneys for Poyner asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing the electric WEDDING DAY.

Nicole Mitchell has her hair done by Derrick McCray at the Pierre Michel Salon in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel Thursday, where her wedding to actor Eddie Murphy was set for early evening. ap Fergle's back. A year after her marriage to Prince Andrew fell apart, the Duchess of York has begun a concerted rehabilitation campaign to shed her image as a frivolous lazybones. In recent weeks the former Sarah Ferguson Fergie, in the cheeky tabloid press has founded a new charity for children, visited orphans in Poland, written a book and taken up the genteel pastime of painting. The remake is slow, uphill work.

Fergie's big-spending, holiday-loving, work-shirking ways did much to weaken the royal family's popularity. The duchess stopped performing royal duties the day her separation from Andrew was announced March 19, 1992, after less than six years of marriage. The dust had hardly settled when intimate photographs surfaced showing a topless duchess snuggling and smooching at pool-side with her "financial adviser," American businessman Johnny Bryan. Kathie Lee's secret is out It's a girl for Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford. She didn't birth her yet, but the TV talker couldn't help but blab test results.

Name and private school announcement next week? Tyson: Reading, praying time away Betty Sha-bazz, the widow of Malcolm paid a visit on Mike Tyson in prison. The two prayed together Wednesday and discussed SHABAZZ. Visits Tyson. his education behind bars. "His prayer moved me to tears," Shabazz said.

"I am as pleased and proud of his development as any mother or professor would be." Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion, is serving a six-year sentence at the Indiana Youth Center, a medium-security prison 15 miles west of Indianapolis, for raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant. Tyson is appealing his convictions on one count of rape and two counts of deviate sexual -A DUCHESS. Forgive her? and to manufacture an excuse for missing a logging contract deadline. Walton, Rogers and six other loggers split a $5,000 prize, but have denied any hoax. "He should have been put in a non-punitive learning-teaching environment," Shabazz said in a statement.

"However, I am totally confident and believe that he is mentally prepared to handle his present challenges." UFO sighter: Still doubted Travis Walton, whose UFO abduction story is told in the movie "Fire in the Sky," says he's hounded by people who doubt him and seven fellow loggers. "I hope people come out of the movie more open-minded," he said Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home in Snowflake in eastern Arizona. Walton, 40, was a logger in northeastern Arizona when he said he was lifted into the sky by an extraterrestrial beam of light on Nov. 5, 1975. He said he reappeared five days later.

The movie, starring D.B. Sweeney as Walton, opened last weekend, prompting a new attack on Walton's claims by the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, which debunks supernatural claims. A member of the organization, Philip J. Klass, said in a 1983 book that Walton and logging crew leader Michael Rogers concocted a hoax to win a National Enquirer UFO sighting contest Joyce Baldwin, 45, mother of five daughters. Chestine Brooks, 43, housekeeper at Raleigh Motel.

chair constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The court refused to halt the execution by a vote of 7-2 Thursday afternoon. Poyner, who grew up in the East End of Newport News, had been in and out jails and prisons since he was 14. He had been arrested for auto theft at least seven times. But nothing in his background suggested violence before January 1984.

Using a .38 caliber pistol taken in a burglary a week before the first murder, Poyner roamed the Peninsula in stolen cars searching for victims. Police formed a task force of Peninsula law enforcement officials and were joined by investigators from the FBI and State Police in their hunt for the killer. Twenty detectives worked nearly 24 hours a day to find Poyner, as rumors of new murders swept the Peninsula. Poyner was arrested after trying to sell candy bars stolen from one of the victims to a Newport News barber. The man, who had heard that one of the victims was a candy saleswoman, notified police.

Poyner described the murders in a matter-of-fact style during a videotaped confession the day after he was arrested. heap "would be nice," he said that he did not point it out to the certification inspector. "I didn't even see the inspector," he said. The compost facility is clearly visible from the restaurant and boarding area of the airport's new, $26 million terminal, and employees have complained that its odor sometimes wafts into the building's ventilation system. The city of Newport News has complained about the compost heap for years, and has asked the sanitation district to move it.

As a possible solution, the sanitation district has proposed enclosing the compost pile and adding chemical odor control devices called "odor scrubbers." Borberg estimated those improvements would cost the sanitation district $10 million much cheaper than moving the compost pile, which would cost an additional $6 million to $7 million, he said. Borberg said hadn't been informed of the latest brouhaha. But he said the allegations of safety hazards were groundless. "There are no birds. There is no wildlife," he said.

"Those things don't exist at that site. There's a little steam, but it's very localized." "We're willing to move it, but we've been there a long time," he said. "If the city or the airport wants us to leave, they ought to pay for it. part of a pattern of favorable treatment given Robb by the Justice Department, and suggested no black politician could have avoided indictment. Wilder, as his staff handed out copies of the plea agreements, said the record of the case left no doubt that Robb was a "member of a conspiracy to discredit and smear me and the office of the governor of Virginia." Wilder said Robb planned the smear campaign to divert media attention from his own personal and political troubles, including allegations he used cocaine at Virginia Beach parties and a former state beauty queen's Playboy magazine account of an extramarital affair with Robb during his earlier tenure as governor.

Robb has consistently denied the allegations. During a widely publicized "peace" meeting at the start of the investigation. Wilder said Robb assured him he was unaware of how his office had obtained the tape and of the maneuverings of his staff to leak the transcript in an Motel in Williamsburg for 25 years. v. Vlcki Ripple, 17, nursing student at Thomas Nelson Community College.

Carolyn Hedrick, 44, mother of three, candy saleswoman. "Well, a woman sees a gun she's Poyner said, explaining why he chose female victims. Poyner's victims were Joyce Baldwin, 45, killed in a hair care shop on Kecoughtan Road in Hampton; Paulett, 72, and Chestine Brooks, 43, both murdered in a Williamsburg motel; Vicki Ripple, 17, killed in an ice cream parlor on Warwick Boulevard; and Hedrick, 44, who was kidnapped from a Hampton grocery and murdered. We believe our customers shouldn't have to pay the extra cost for the benefit of someone else." Del. Alan A.

Diamonstein, D-Newport News, said making Newport News citizens pay to move the heap wasn't fair. Hampton Roads Sanitation District "doesn't just serve Newport News," he said. "It serves several other jurisdictions." Borberg said that HRSD serves 13 cities and counties. Randy Hildebrandt, assistant city manager for Newport News, said that merely enclosing the compost wasn't acceptable. "Our city has concluded that the facility doesn't belong in that location," he said.

"It's not appropriate land use." Hildebrandt said that HRSD had made a bad business decision in locating the composting operation 10 years ago in a part of town that was clearly growing. "If they had to site that facility now, they wouldn't get approval," he said. "We think they made a short-term decision a long time ago that wasn't good." Smith said the airport commission would let the city lead the discussions. He said he had written to City Manager Edgar Maroney, informing him of the FAA's letter. Mendez of the FAA declined to' be specific about what the FAA might do if the compost heap does not go.

effort to discredit Wilder. In the taped conversation, Wilder said he believed Robb's' career was ruined by allegations about his personal conduct. ttmBBMiirmt The obituary of Susie B. Bartholomew in Thursday's Local section incorrectly stated the address for memorial donations for Morrison United Methodist Church. The church's address is 236 Harpersville Road, Newport News 23601.

The complete obituary is on C4. The Daily Press is eager to correct errors published in this newspaper as soon as possible. If you believe incorrect information has been published, call the appropriate number listed under "To call us" on this page. -----yS i iiim ii am Compost Continued from A1 treated sewage, could attract birds and other wildlife. "We consider this operation as an incompatible land use near the runway," FAA Engineering Supervisor Terry J.

Page said in the letter. The airport's grant agreements with the FAA require that the airport take steps to correct land use problems, he said. The FAA asked the Peninsula Airport Commission to begin discussions with the operators of the composting facility to have it moved or closed The facility has been near the airport since the mid-'70s, said James R. Borberg, general manager for the sanitation district. The location has been a waste disposal site in some form since World War II, he added.

But the FAA did not notice the problem until Jaa 13, when an FAA inspector made a routine check of the airport, said Robert B. Mendez, manager of the FAA's Washington Airports District Office, which oversees the Newport News airport. "Maybe it was a bigger pile, or maybe the steam was more noticeable because of the cold weather," he said. "But that's just conjecture." Smith said that while he believes getting rid of the nearby compost Offices are generally open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Advertising, circulation and news services are available in each Daily Press office. Our main office Is In Newport News at 7505 Warwick Blvd. If you need to reach a department not listed, please call 247-4600. To contact the Circulation Department: Philip visits Caribbean Hundreds of people turned out Thursday to greet Prince Philip on his first visit to Tortola, British Virgin Islands, in 16 years. He was welcomed by PHILIP.

Traveling. British and local officials as he stepped off the royal yacht Britannia, then left to attend a special legislative session. From there, he was to head for a band concert, a trip to coral baths on the nearby island of Virgin Gorda and a dinner reception aboard the yacht. The Duke of Edinburgh and the husband of Queen Elizabeth II is on a 10-day tour of the English-speaking Caribbean. Today's birthdays Actress-singer Phyllis Newman is 58.

Actress Ursula Andress is 57. Actress Glenn Close is 46. Actor Bruce Willis is 38. From wire service reports Si Today is Friday, March 19, the 78th day of 1993. Highlight in history: In 1953, the Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" was named best picture of 1952. On this date: In 1918, Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time. In 1920, the U.S. Senate rejected for the second time the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 49 in favor, 35 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval. In 1931 Nevada legalized gambling.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that men between the ages of 45 and 64 register for non-military duty. In 1976, Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snow-don, after 1 6 years of marriage. In 1979, the U.S. House of Representatives began television broadcasts of its day-to-day business.

In 1 987, televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary. In 1988, Two British soldiers were shot to death after they were dragged from a car and beaten by mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The Associated Press Home delivery 247-4800 Or call toll-free 1-800-543-8908 6 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m.-11 a.m.; 8 a.m.-noon) TDD Hearing impaired 247-1028 To contact the bureaus for news and advertising: Hampton, 137 N. Kings Way 723-6021 Williamsburg, 104 Bypass Road 229-3783 Gloucester, Main Street 693-21 1 1 Smithfield, 1248 Smithfield Plaza, Route 10 357-4137 To place an advertisement: Classified 247-4700 Display 247-4678 To contact the news departments: General information 247-4730 Local news 247-4730 Neighbors 247-4754 Sports 247-4630 Scoreline 247-4647 LifeStylesFoodweddings and engagements 247-4780 Business news 247-4766 Editorialsletters 247-4624 Obituaries 247-4730 Photography photo reprints 247-4902 Library 247-4882 Editor 247-4629 To contact the public services office for: Promotionsspeakers' bureau 247-4919 Newspapers in Education 247-4920 Dailfl Press Established 1896 Wilder Continued from A1 Robb spokeswoman Peggy Wil-hide said the senator would not comment.

But she said the grand jury "came to a different conclusion" than Wilder about Robb's role and said the senator "doesn't believe the interests of Virginia or the interests of any individual would be served by additional comment." The 18-month federal grand jury investigation of the wiretapping concluded Wednesday with the plea bargain of a Robb associate who admitted giving a tape recording of a Wilder conversation to a Robb aide. In all, five people, including three Robb aides, entered into plea agreements with prosecutors. Robb made an extraordinary second appearance before the grand jury shortly before it concluded its session in January. The panel declined to indict the senator. Wilder said that appearancaf was A Tribune Company Newspaper Joseph D.

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