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By PAMELA GOULD
Fredericksburg police plan to wait until an autopsy is completed today to decide whether to pursue capital murder charges and a possible death sentence in the killing of a local restaurant deliveryman.
Police found what is presumed to be the body of 24-year-old Yong Hui Zhang of Fredericksburg in a remote, wooded area of Sussex County about 1:30 yesterday morning, three days after he disappeared from Fredericksburg while making a delivery for his family's China Express restaurant. The remains will be positively identified through forensic techniques, police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said.
Zhang's 2004 Nissan Sentra was found a short distance from the remains, Bledsoe said.
About 5 p.m. Saturday, police arrested two suspects in Zhang's disappearance at a Wal-Mart in the city of Franklin after Zhang's credit card was used to buy items in the store.
Jermaine Montgomery, 34, and his girlfriend Marcey White, 36, are charged with abduction, carjacking, credit card theft and conspiracy. Bledsoe said discussions about possible additional charges, including capital murder, are expected to take place today.
Under state law, a slaying in the commission of another felony, including abduction or robbery, qualifies for a charge of capital murder and a possible death sentence.
Montgomery and White are scheduled for arraignment tomorrow morning in Fredericksburg District Court. It was unclear yesterday whether they would appear in person or via a closed-circuit video system, Bledsoe said.
Montgomery is being held without bond in Southampton County. White is in custody in Sussex County.
Zhang's parents contacted police about 10:15 p.m. Thursday when they were closing their business on U.S. 1 to report that their son had not returned from making three food deliveries.
Police determined he left the Fredericksburg restaurant about 9:20 p.m. and successfully made the first two deliveries. A large amount of blood and a shoe believed to be Zhang's were found behind the third location, the vacant Colonial Heights apartments at 202 Charles St.
One of the first leads police received was a security video showing a man using Zhang's credit card at the Four Mile Fork Shell in Spot-sylvania County at 10:45 p.m. Thursday.
White is from Virginia Beach, and Montgomery is from Southampton, but Bledsoe said police have no permanent address for either. She said police do not know why they would be in Fredericksburg, except that Montgomery has family in Spotsylvania.
Franklin is about 135 miles southeast of Fredericksburg. Sussex, where the body was found, is west of Franklin, and is split by Interstate 95.
Police were continuing yesterday to interview family members and associates of the pair in this region and in southeastern Virginia, Bledsoe said.
"At this time, no additional persons have been char-ged," she said.
Bledsoe said Zhang immigrated to the United States from China five years ago and had never been in trouble.
She said neither Montgomery nor White had had previous run-ins with Fredericksburg police. An online check of court records by The Free Lance-Star turned up no criminal charges for either suspect in the Fredericksburg region or in the Tidewater area, Southampton or Sussex.
Zhang's family did not wish to speak with the media and have not reopened their restaurant since Thursday.
Yesterday, flowers and notes of sympathy had been left outside the front door of the restaurant and at the apartment building where Zhang was apparently attacked.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com
