Evening star., 1942-02-08
Slayers Of loveIess
Given Life in Prison
After Pleading Guilty
Youth Of Defendants
Considered by Court
In Fixing Sentence
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES,
Star stan Correspondent

stretched ahead tonight for two
16-year-old boys, Herbert Buckle
Porter, Brentwood, Md, and
Paul Bernard Hoback, Blue
field, w. Va, confessed killers of
Ward Loveless, Washington at
torney and Loudoun County
land owner, whom they shot to
death when he caught them
robbing his country home near
here.
The two heard the sentence after
a brief trial before Judge J. R. H.
Alexander in a crowded Circuit
Court room here this afternoon.
Life imprisonment was the courts
Judgment after commemorative
Attorney Charles F. Harrison had
demanded the electric chair and
State Senator Aubrey Weaver of
Front Royal, chief defense counsel,
had urged a more lenient punish
ment in view of the defendants
youth.
Two heartbroken mothers ran for
ward when sentence was pronounced
and clasped their sons sobbing con-
vulsively. The two fathers stood
close by, trying to control them
selves and comfort the mothers.
Hoback Breaks Down.
Hoback, called by officers who in
vestigated the crime the more
"hard- boiled" of the pair, broke
down. He was trying to hold back
the tears as he left his mother and
started out, handcuffed to his COM
panion. Porter was pale but he kept
his face impassive as his mother
gave him a final fearful kiss.
The boys had pleaded guilty to
murder. The brief hearing, without
a jury, was only to determine the
degree of guilt and the punishment.
But the prosecutor called enough
witnesses to establish what he
called, in his summation, one Of the
most cruel crimes in the ANIMALS OF
Loudoun County. The defense Of
fered no testimony, but Mr.. Weaver
made brief plea to the court.
"At the outset" said Judge Alex
ander, when it came time to pro-
nounce sentence, Il want to say
that don't believe that the ends of
justice require the imposing OF the
death penalty on two 16-year-old
boys. They have not reached the
maturity of age which gives them
any adequate understanding of the
consequences of their acts"
The judge added that the electric
chair not only would be too severe,
but might create revulsion which
would defeat the ends of justice.
Then he told the boys to stand, and
he carried out the formality OF ask
ing each if there was any reason
why sentence should not be pro-
nounced.
NO." they said, in low tones.
Crime Denounced.
Each of them, said Judge Alex
ander, would be taken to the State
Penitentiary at Richmond for the
term of his natural life.
The Commemorative attorney
was bitter in his denunciation Of the
crime and of the youths who ad-
mitted it. Mr. Loveless, he said, was
q man who by his own efforts had
amassed property and comfort, was
a valuable citizen, heavy taxpayer.
And due to these young men"
Mr.. Harrison added, "his life was
taken from him in the very home
he loved and had dreamed of. No
more brutal act could have been
visited on any man"
And, the prosecutor said. the act
merits nothing less than death"
This, he said. was not an ordi-
nary killing on the spur OF the mo-
ment, but "a thoroughly considered
plan" to rob and kill Mr.. Loveless.
Mr.. Harrison pointed out that Ho-
back formerly had worked for the
lawyer-landowner and knew he often
carried considerable sums of money.
Mr.. Weaver. in his address to the
court, denied that the evidence
showed a premeditated plan to kill
Mr. Loveless. 1t did disclose a
plot to rob his house, the attorney
conceded
Attorney Cites Youth.
Speaking OF the defendants
youth, Mr.. Weaver pointed out that
legally they would not even be old
enough to make a contract.
They would have you believe
that these boys are experienced as
criminals, and yet they didn't have
sense enough to change the license
tag on Mr.. Loveless' automobile"
1t was the car in which they es-
capped that led to their capture near
Cumberland, KY, few days after
a servant found the body of Mr..
Loveless on November "a stuffed in
a closet off his breakfast room. In
the car were the slain mans watch,
his wallet, pair of antique pistols
and a brief case taken from his
home. The wallet, ironically enough,
had contained nothing but a check,
which the boys were afraid to try
to cash.
Mr.. Weaver reminded the court
that under State law there was
wide scope of possible punishment,
ranging from 20 years to the death
penalty the prosecutor had urged.
Mr.. Harrison sought to bring out
in his evidence that the boys. in
their confessions to officers. had
tried to mitigate their crime by
falsely making it appear that they