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Jessica
Francis BLACKWELL
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Alcohol - Argument
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: May 25, 2011
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth: 1981
Victim profile:
Gary Lynn Saunders, 59
Method of murder:
Stabbing with knife
Location: Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Status:
Pleaded no contest on March 1, 2012. Sentenced to 40 years in prison, suspended
after she serves half that, on March 1, 2032
Roanoke woman to serve 20 years in 2011 stabbing
death
By Neil Harvey - The Roanoke Times
March 1, 2012
The woman accused of stabbing a Roanoke man to
death last year will spend 20 years in prison for second-degree
murder.
Jessica Francis Blackwell, 31, pleaded no contest
to the charge today in Roanoke Circuit Court as part of an agreement
with prosecutors. Judge Charlie Dorsey found her guilty and sentenced
her to 40 years in prison, suspended after she serves half that. The
maximum sentence for second-degree murder is 40 years.
Blackwell was charged in the death of Gary Lynn
Saunders, 59, whose body was discovered early May 25 on a sofa in the
living room of the apartment they shared in the 1000 block of Campbell
Avenue Southwest.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joshua Dietz told
the court that Blackwell and Saunders were drinking heavily the night
of the incident. He said Blackwell was drunkenly playing with a
long-bladed knife, and he said she told their apartment neighbors she
intended to kill Saunders.
During the evening she accidentally stabbed herself
in the leg, Dietz said, and he said that after Blackwell pushed
Saunders backward off a porch railing, one of the neighbors took the
knife away from her.
Police were called to the residence about 2 a.m. by
Blackwell. There they found Saunders, dead from two stab wounds to the
chest, and a blood-stained knife hanging on a magnetic rack in the
kitchen, Dietz said.
Blackwell, a small woman who has shaved her head
almost down to the scalp since her last hearing in December,
apologized to the four members of Saunders’ family who were present at
the hearing. Her mother and her mother’s boyfriend were in court as
well.
“He was my best friend,” Blackwell told Dorsey
through tears. “If we hadn’t been drinking, none of this would’ve
happened."
Suspect in Roanoke stabbing found fit for trial
By Neil Harvey - The Roanoke Times
December 8, 2011
The woman accused earlier this year of stabbing a
Roanoke man to death has been found competent to stand trial and will
do so early next year.
Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Charlie Dorsey approved
her competency evaluation at a Wednesday hearing in Roanoke Circuit
Court.
Jessica Frances Blackwell, 30, is charged with
murder in the death of Gary Lynn Saunders, 59, whose body was
discovered May 25 on a sofa in the living room of an apartment house
in the 1000 block of Campbell Avenue Southwest. Police were called to
the residence about 2 a.m. by a female caller.
Investigators have said Blackwell was also in the
apartment at the time. According to police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson,
Blackwell and Saunders were acquaintances. It remains unclear whether
Blackwell summoned police to the apartment.
Blackwell, in jail coveralls, said nothing during
Wednesday's hearing. She is scheduled to go to trial Feb. 23.
Blackwell's criminal history includes four charges of prostitution
from 2005 to 2010, and trespassing, according to online court records.
She served several months in jail and was fined several hundred
dollars on the prostitution charges.
Investigators seized two knives, paper towels and
two sections of carpeting from the Campbell Avenue apartment, court
documents said. They also took swabs from Blackwell's hands.
Police release name of Roanoke man found stabbed
to death
By Amanda Codispoti - The Roanoke Times
May 27, 2011
A man who was stabbed to death inside his apartment
in Roanoke's West End neighborhood Wednesday was identified by police
as Gary Lynn Saunders, 59.
Saunders' body was on a sofa in the living room of
an apartment in the 1000 block of Campbell Avenue Southwest when
police arrived, according to a search warrant filed in Roanoke City
Circuit Court. They were summoned about 2 a.m. by a female caller.
Jessica Frances Blackwell, 30, who has a criminal
record that includes four convictions for prostitution, was charged
with Saunders' death. She was at the apartment when officers arrived,
the search warrant said.
Saunders and Blackwell were acquaintances,
according to Aisha Johnson, a police spokeswoman.
"From what detectives have learned to this point,
they did not appear to have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship,"
Johnson said in an email Thursday.
Roanoke police didn't release Saunders' name until
Thursday because they couldn't initially locate relatives to notify
them of the death, Johnson said.
Investigators seized two knives, paper towels, and
two sections of carpeting from the apartment. They also took swabs
from Blackwell's hands, the court documents said.
Blackwell was held at the Roanoke City Jail without
bond. A court hearing was scheduled for June 24.
Man killed in Roanoke stabbing
A woman, 30, at the apartment where the body was
found has been charged with murder
By Amanda Codispoti - The Roanoke Times
May 26, 2011
Roanoke police found a man on a living room couch
dead from stab wounds.
They also found their suspect, Jessica Frances
Blackwell, inside the apartment, one of four units in a gray house in
the 1000 block of Campbell Avenue Southwest in the West End
neighborhood, according to a search warrant filed Wednesday in Roanoke
City Circuit Court.
Blackwell, 30, of Roanoke was locked in Roanoke
City Jail on a murder charge.
Police withheld the victim's name, saying they
couldn't immediately locate his family about his death, according to
police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson.
Blackwell and the victim were acquainted, Johnson
said. She would not elaborate.
A woman summoned police to the house about 2:08
a.m. Wednesday, saying someone was dead, the search warrant said.
"Officers located Jessica Blackwell in apartment
'A' and the body of a white male lying on a sofa in the living room,"
the warrant said.
The warrant sought to search Blackwell for hair,
saliva, blood and clothing.
Officers swabbed both of her hands for evidence,
according to the search warrant. They also seized clothing.
Blackwell's criminal history includes four charges
of prostitution from 2005 to 2010 and trespassing, according to online
court records. She served several months in jail and was fined several
hundred dollars on the prostitution charges.
Her family could not be reached Wednesday.
Two Campbell Avenue neighbors said they didn't know
who lived in the apartment.
A note from city animal control addressed to "Next
of kin" hung on the storm door, saying the victim's pet had been taken
to the shelter.
