By BILL MCKELWAY
Published: September 24, 2009
Rice Jamerson
A runaway killer arrested by state police last year told a Henrico County judge this week that he killed his live-in girlfriend in a jealous rage.
But the wounds suffered by 22-year-old Melissa Jamerson spoke to more brutal violence. Forensics evidence showed that she suffered from 25 stab wounds to the neck.
Jamerson's body was discovered Nov. 2 in an upstairs bedroom of the couple's apartment at 9001 Patterson Ave. after state police arrested Justin L. Rice, now 23, near Interstate 64 in Goochland County.
Drivers whose cars had been rammed by Rice, who was bleeding and barely conscious, followed him and called authorities.
Rice towered over Jamerson and outweighed her by more than 140 pounds. He told Circuit Judge Catherine C. Hammond on Tuesday that Jamerson threatened to leave him and planned to live with a former boyfriend, the father of her two young children.
"We don't have any reason to believe that was true," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Stock.
Hammond convicted Rice of second-degree murder and set sentencing for Dec. 8. He faces up to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that Rice exploded after learning that Jamerson was meeting with the former boyfriend and simply assumed the worst. Testimony showed that the meeting was to arrange child-support payments, Stock said.
Rice attacked Jamerson sometime the evening of Nov. 1, repeatedly stabbing her in the apartment they'd shared since August. He was arrested the next day.
Authorities believe Jamerson was probably on her back during the attack. Rice fled and cut himself repeatedly on the arms, telling officers and a Henrico detective that he wanted to bleed to death.
But he had also bandaged his wounds and became incoherent when being questioned in a hospital.
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