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Inmate guilty of murder in killings of security guard and deputy

Healthcare Security Weekly, March 17, 2008

A Virginia jury on March 11 convicted inmate William Morva of capital murder for killing a hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy during an escape from the hospital where he was being treated.

Jurors deliberated for about 3 ½ hours before finding Morva guilty of the August 2006 killings in Montgomery County, the Associated Press reported. Jurors then began hearing testimony in the penalty phase of the trial to decide whether to sentence Morva to death or life in prison without parole.

The 26-year-old Morva was convicted of overpowering a sheriff's deputy who was guarding him at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg and then using the deputy's pistol to kill unarmed security guard Derrick McFarland. Morva was also convicted in the killing of a sheriff's deputy one day later near the Virginia Tech campus during the ensuing manhunt for him.

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