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Published: March 28, 2010

It was a crime that shocked the Tri-Cities and the nation.

A former Colonial Heights man's murder trial in Petersburg in 1975 was probably the most notorious in the city's history and generated headlines across the nation.

Lee Roy Hargrave Jr., 56, was convicted in Petersburg Circuit Court in May 1975 of murdering an elderly former schoolteacher by injecting her with a heart drug, lidocaine. He had been charged with five other, similar killings but never went to trial on those charges.

The trial attracted national attention - a serial killer and an angel of death - preyed upon the ill Now through a series of circumstances, Hargrave is a free man after serving 35 years in prison of a life sentence. He feel through the legal cracks of the justice systems and is a man no expected would ever be set free.

At the time of his arrest, Hargrave was a 20-year-old nurse's aide in the coronary care unit at Petersburg General Hospital, which later became the old Southside Regional Medical Center. Hargrave was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after a trial that drew reporters to Petersburg from many of the nation's largest news organizations.

He had been charged with murdering six elderly patients in June 1974 by injecting them with lidocaine, a heart depressant, but was tried only for the death of Josephine L. Thomas, a 73-year-old former Petersburg school teacher.

Hospital officials at the time declined to say exactly how many patients died during Hargrave's tenure in the coronary care unit, where he worked the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, but they confirmed that at least 12 died under "suspicious circumstances." He was fired after Thomas died on the morning of June 30.

Testimony during the trial disclosed that Hargrave had been the employee who reported 26 of the 31 patients whose vital signs stopped during that month. Some of those patients recovered, but hospital officials acknowledged that the death rate in the unit during the month Hargrave worked there was far above the five or six deaths reported during an average month.

One nurse testified at the trial that after Thomas died, Hargrave wondered, "Why do I always seem to be the one to find the bodies?"

Hargrave's motive was never made entirely clear. He acknowledged at the trial that he had an interest in communicating with the dead, holding Ouija board sessions "in lieu of beer parties." He also kept a list of the people who died in the coronary care unit.

Hargrave also was indicted for murder in the deaths of John E. Harris, 64; Martha Avery, 84; John Wesley Wray, 85; Robert Wyche; and Leonard Hudson Sr. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

That was the first circumstance that has led to a killer being set free. He was only tried in one of the cases. But the prosecutors couldn't be blamed back then - he was sentenced to a life sentence and they couldn't envision he would ever be set free. For them, there was no need for additional trials on the other charges.

Hargrave was fortunate in that he was convicted before state law was changed to eliminate parole. That meant he was "grandfathered" and was available for parole. Hargrave was further fortunate in that he was convicted during a time when the U.S. Supreme Court had suspended capital punishment in the United States from 1972 through 1976. Therefore, Hargrave was not eligible for the death penalty.

Hargrave was granted parole in November by the Virginia Parole Board and released on Dec. 31. Hargrave is now under the jurisdiction of the Parole Board's District 41, which includes Hanover and Caroline counties.

Hargrave's parole raises several troubling questions. Di anyone in the Petersburg area - surviving relatives, law enforcement officials or others were aware of the killer's upcoming parole hearing? Was the Petersburg Commonwealth's Attorneys office award of the upcoming parole hearing? Who did the parole board notify about the hearing? Did members of the parole board know about the indictments against Hargrave? Did they know Hargrave was not just convicted of one death, but was indicted in five other deaths and suspected of perhaps even more?

A killer is free because he fell through the cracks of Virginia's criminal justice system.

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