laurence.hammack@roanoke.com 981-3239
   
   Lawyers for a former student charged in a fatal shooting spree at the Appalachian School of Law are negotiating a plea agreement with prosecutors that could resolve the case Friday, according to sources close to the case.
   If the agreement goes through, Peter Odighizuwa would avoid a possible death sentence on charges of killing the school's dean, a professor and a student.
   "I understand a plea bargain is in the making and will be submitted to the judge on Friday, unless something goes awry," said Emmitt Yeary, an Abingdon attorney who represents the family of one of the victims and three students who were wounded in the shootings.
   All four of Yeary's clients told him this week that prosecutors have contacted them about a possible plea agreement, he said Wednesday. He declined to comment on their feelings about such a deal.
   Although details were sketchy, Yeary said it was his understanding that Odighizuwa would receive multiple life sentences in exchange for his plea. It was not clear whether he would plead guilty or no contest, or whether it would be to capital or first-degree murder charges.
   Yeary said he asked Buchanan County Commonwealth's Attorney Sheila Tolliver about a possible plea in the case, and she would only say that a hearing has been scheduled for Friday.
   Tolliver could not be reached Wednesday. Defense attorneys Jimmy Turk and Roger Groot had no comment.
   A courthouse official confirmed that a hearing in the case had recently been set for 9 a.m. Friday.
   Two sources close to the case, who asked not to be identified, also said a plea agreement has been reached.
   Odighizuwa, who has a history of mental illness and a troubled relationship with a law school where he struggled academically, has said in the past that he is not guilty by reason of insanity.
   A psychiatrist was appointed last year to examine Odighizuwa and determine whether there was a legal basis for an insanity plea. Lawyers said at a hearing last month that the evaluation was still under way.
   Defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity are committed to a psychiatric hospital until they no longer pose a risk to themselves or others - a period that could last anywhere from months to a lifetime.
   Defendants convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life are never eligible for release. Life sentences on charges of first-degree murder carry the possibility of geriatric release, either at age 60 if the defendant has served at least 10 years or 65 if at least five years have been served.
   Tolliver has said in the past she would seek the death penalty. However, the case has been delayed because of Odighizuwa's mental problems, which were serious enough for him to be declared incompetent to stand trial for nearly a year.
   Odighizuwa, a 45-year-old Nigerian native, had been scheduled to go on trial in May on three charges of capital murder, three charges of attempted capital murder and six firearms offenses.
   He is accused of killing the school's dean, Anthony Sutin, a professor, Thomas Blackwell, and a student, Angela Dales.
   Witnesses testified at a preliminary hearing last year that Odighizuwa moved silently and methodically through the school's main building in Grundy the afternoon of Jan. 16, 2002, shooting Blackwell and Sutin in their upstairs offices before going to a student lounge on the first floor.
   There, he shot Dales and three other female students, according to witnesses.
   Dales' family and the three women wounded in the shooting have hired Yeary to file a lawsuit claiming that lax security at the school contributed to the carnage.
   The lawsuit also claims that school administrators ignored warning signs that Odighizuwa was becoming a threat in the days leading up to the shooting, and that the school allowed him to remain on campus because they needed as many minority students as possible to gain accreditation.
   Although a motive for the shootings did not emerge from the preliminary hearing, state police said at the time of the incident that Odighizuwa had just learned that he had been kicked out of school because of his poor grades.