Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • B4

10529TD2V04B TO Sunday Metro 05-29 1 0529TO2V04B ZALLCALL 3 21 :50:06 052805 B4 Richmond Thnaa-DiBpateh Sunday, May 29, 2005 www.TjmetDii patch Holmberg FROM PAGE Bl home. Alicia was screaming that "Ms. Tina" had been killed, that Taj did it, the family recalled. "Ms. Tina is dead?" Alicia's mom, Barbara Hawthorne, remembered crying.

"I fell to my knees." She and her daughter had loved Taj Robbins' 60-year-old mother, Nora Robbins Stith. "Ms. Tina," as they called her, loved them IBABUMBS Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, 63, succeeded the Most Rev. Walter F.

Sullivan, who retired last year after 29 years as bishop of the diocese. A Philadelphia native, DiLorenzo came to Richmond from Honolulu, where he was bishop for 10 years. Bishop FROM PAGE Bl dude moving his residence from Cathedral Place to Midlothian, doing away with the diocesan sexual-minorities commission and increasing the number of clustered parishes. He also is bringing in consultants to review some diocesan departments and commissions to see what their strong points are and where strengthening is needed, he said. Chad Blosser, a member of St.

Benedict Catholic Church, sees DiLorenzo's changes as positive, but he said "this diocese is in need of much more change at a more rapid pace." He suggested that the bishop ensure strict adherence of all churches to the General Instruction for the Roman Missal, a guidance document for parishes. "Priests continue to do what they want with no apparent repercussions," Blosser said. change involves hiring an auditor to work with parishes and schools to be sure they have the checks and controls they need. It's a move that pleases Margee Downs, a member of St. Paul Catholic Church in Portsmouth and a board member of Portsmouth Catholic Elementary School.

Adding an auditor will help "us in making sure all financial records are in order," she said. "We understand the bishop is interested in education. We hope we can get more support from the diocese. We don't have strong support from a parish. So we always look to the diocese to help," Downs added.

DiLorenzo, 63, succeeded the Most Rev. Walter F. Sullivan, who retired last year after 29 years as bishop of the diocese. A Philadelphia native, DiLorenzo came to Richmond from Honolulu, where he was bishop for 10 years. Many people compare the two bishops.

People tend to label SulKvan as liberal and DiLorenzo as conservative. DiLorenzo doesn't like such terms and says those doing the labeling never define what they mean by liberal and conservative. The two bishops have different styles, he said, adding: "It doesn't matter what I sec myself as." "Bishop DiLorenzo's gifts and mission might be quite different from Bishop Sullivan's," said Carolyn Halbert, a member of Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. "Anytime there is a new director there is change, and that change isn't always taken well. I pray the Holy icia deserves a lesser sentence than that recommended by state guidelines.

It's a convincing document. Alicia had worked regularly at Interbake Foods before meeting Taj Robbins. She had never been arrested. She paid her bills and had money saved in her bank account. There are letters from her children's teachers, saying how active Alicia had been in her children's schooling.

The motion includes a conclusion from Michael Jeffrey, a professional counselor and family therapist, that Alicia was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression caused by physical and emotional beatings by her husband. Everything Alicia did, such as quitting her job and suddenly abandoning her children, fits that syndrome, Jeffrey told me. Taj Robbins' abuse was right out of the textbook, Jeffrey explained. He was fiercely possessive. His violence escalated, and came without warning.

He isolated her. He took control of her money, her car, her dog. As Cardwell wrote in her motion, "Prior to the tragic death of Nora Stith, Ms. Robbins tried unsuccessfully, on separate occasions, to break away from the physical and psychological control of her husband by attempting suicide, seeking emergency room care, and seeking counseling from her deacon and pastor." The motion contains an emergency room analysis and letters from Alicia's deacon and pastor, who met with her before the slaying, when her distress had become apparent to all. She confided in them about the abuse she was suffering, wrote Deacon William Moore with Great Hope Baptist Church.

"Again, we urged her to call the police, but she refused because she stated she was afraid of him," Moore wrote. "We prayed together and for her and I did not hear from her again until I saw her on the news." "It is my honest opinion," Moore concluded, "that this woman was a victim as well as Taj Robbins' deceased mother, and deserves another chance. I ask and pray for any leniency the court can consider and grant." No doubt some of you are reading this with a sinking heart. You, too, are under the spell of a monster or know someone who is. Call a battered women's hotline.

Call the police. Run away. It's not too late to escape and escape you must. The monster won't change, but you will, as we can see from Alicia's makeover. She had been such a beautiful woman, full of life.

"To Alicia, wrote her mother-in-law on the back of one of those glamour photographs showing Ms. Tina nine months before she was strangled. "You are such a lovely and sweet lady. Please do not ever change. Love, Ms.

Tina. Contact Mark at (804) 64M822 or mholmbergitimesdispatcii.com back. Hawthorne, who retired after being a machine operator at Philip Morris for 3IV2 years, is a strong, no-nonsense woman. As soon as she heard what happened to Robbins' mother, she had Alicia get on the phone with police. Without a lawyer or con- rprn for tipr- Stith self, Alicia Robbin told investigators the whole story.

If she hadn't, Taj Robbins probably wouldVe gotten away with murder. He knew it the minute he was arrested. "Hello sexy, "he wrote her in a jailhouse letter. "I had a dream about you again, loving you as usual. of that expletive that they are threatening you with is nowhere.

What robbery? What forgery? I know and you know that uk both know toe had permission to do what was done. Your statements were given out of fear. Fight this expletive with Alicia held firm. In a last-minute deal, Taj Robbins still proclaiming his innocence pleaded guilty to capital murder to avoid a possible death sentence. He has since been sentenced to life in prison.

Alicia tearfully admitted her part in the slaying and pleaded guilty to murder. Shell be sentenced Tuesday by Henrico Circuit Judge LA Harris Jr. She, too, could get Hfe in prison. Hawthorne recently hired attorney Claire Cardwell to try to win some mercy for her daughter during Tuesday's sentencing. Cardwell, who prosecuted many Richmond murderers during her distinguished career with the city's commonwealth's attorney's office, believes Alicia is a battered woman who Hved in fear of the man who beat and dominated her.

"If he had told her to jump off a cliff, she would have done it," Cardwell said. Two days ago, she filed a motion spelling out the mitigating circumstances that indicate Al Ifc story house was turned into offices for those working in a building that the diocese was renting for $35,000 a year. "We saved ourselves thirty-some-thousand a year. And I moved to Midlothian, a very quiet place." He described the house in the suburbs as a modest home that cost the diocese about $250,000. Money invested in the house and property will appreciate, DiLorenzo said.

He disbanded the diocesan sexual-minorities commission because it had outlived its usefulness, the bishop said. "What was being done was not a ministry. It was trying to make a statement for people who see themselves discriminated against The statement that needed to be made has been made. We are not going to make a big deal about what your fantasy sexual fife is," he said, adding that there are moral expectations for everyone. "I think most people would agree that the ministry is to call all persons to Jesus Christ in dis-cipleship.

The gender issue was not raised by Jesus. Jesus called everyone to holiness. Are there certain groups in our population that need help in that journey?" Support groups and parishes can be helpful, the bishop said. "Our main mission is to mentor people in discipleship." Contact Alberta Undsey at (804) 649-6754 or alindseyitjmesdispatch.com spotted the car at 6:39." Garrett heeded the trooper's direction to pull his car over to the side of the interstate, at 6:43 a.m., but at first he would not leave the vehicle, Ball said. After speaking with hostage negotiators for about 15 minutes, he finally surrendered and was taken into custody.

His daughter, who had been riding in the car with him, was unharmed. By yesterday afternoon Garrett was en route back to Virginia Beach to face murder charges, Ball said. Contact Bill Geroux at (757) 625-1358 or wgerouxftimesdispatch.com Spirit takes us in a new direction with our new bishop." Among DiLorenzo's changes is the reassignment of the Rev. Michael Renninger, rector of the cathedral, to full-time director of vocations, effective Wednesday. Many cathedral parishioners don't want Renninger to leave.

He has been serving in both positions. "Father Michael is a wonderful Hturgist and a very gifted pastoral priest," Halbert said. "We hate losing him. He's the right man for the job. I wish we could clone him.

love our Father Elvis." Renninger has been dubbed Father Elvis because of the impersonations he does of singer Elvis Presley. After his installation, DiLorenzo's wheels hit the road rolling. He spent about five weeks traveling around the diocese, which covers most of Virginia, to meet all of the priests, visit diocesan buildings and meet 450 lay leaders, he said. "It's a very, very stable diocese with a lot of human resources and material resources that promote our evangelism. They can get out there and preach the word and have decent, dignified places for people to meet," he said.

People "take religion seriously. At least the people I'm meeting." He also is working on "sharpening and clarifying our religious government rounds up about 6,000 of the animals for adoption to help control the increasing wild horse population and to maintain natural resources. The animals will arrive Friday and will be available for viewing between noon and 7 p.m. The auction will take place 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday and 8 a.m. to noon Sunday. The starting adoption fee is $125 per animal. Animals not adopted during the auction hours will be offered on a first-come basis for the minimum adoption fee. Applications and information on adoption requirements are available by contacting the Bureau of Land Management at (800) 370-3936, or by visiting its Web site at www.doi.govhorse.

Auction of wild horses set June 4-5 program in each and every parish," DiLorenzo said. A survey of the diocese showed that people value their religious community, the word of God, worship, identifying and training lay leaders and service to the poor. Now parishioners are being asked how these programs are taking shape in their parish and who is working on them. "You have to go where the people are. That means some changes.

Clustering is one way to do it," he said. Under clustering, one priest is assigned to cover two parishes. Some clustering was already in place before DiLorenzo arrived in Richmond. When a space-utilization evaluation showed the need for more room in the chancery office building, DiLorenzo decided to move to Midlothian in Chesterfield County rather than purchase another building for offices. The bishop had always lived in a three-story house next to the cathedral.

Some Catholics have raised questions about the move and see it as a way to distance himself from his flock. But DiLorenzo says it wasn't, pointing out that he's only 25 minutes from the diocesan offices. "Do I need to Eve in a three-story building by myself? I don't think so," he said. So the three- hooting FROM PAGE 1 he would not tell them where he was, they soon learned he was driving south on Interstate 95. Police would not say whether the cell-phone signal helped locate Garrett.

Police issued a BOL (Be on the Lookout) for Garrett's Cadillac. They were in the process of issuing an Amber Alert for his daughter when a state trooper spotted the Cadillac heading south on 1-95 south of Emporia, about 9 miles north of the Virginia-North Carolina line, Ball said. "Everything happened at once," Ball said "The BOL was issued at 6:34 a.m. and the trooper 11 LHj Rose Ceom Angel an additional charge 1 photo of the deceased included, or, at your request; a special character may be used in your notice. IJHHPH ffitillTlE PIlfHltJ 6444181 HOME DELIVERY The federal government will offer Virginia horse lovers a taste of the West at an adoption auction of wild horses and burros June 4 and 5inLorton.

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management will bring more than 100 wild horses to the Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area, 10406 Gunston Road, as part of the Adopt-A-Wild Horse and Burro Program. More than 203,000 animals have been adopted since the program began in 1973. "America really has a bve affair for horses," said Terry Lewis, chief of external affairs for the bureau's Eastern states offices. About 36,000 wild horses roam open areas in Western states, Lewis said.

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