Ex-girlfriend of slain guard convicted of lying to obtain money

By Kristin Davis

VIRGINIA BEACH

The former girlfriend of a Norfolk State University security guard slain nearly four years ago inside the home they shared on Pollypine Drive admitted Wednesday in Circuit Court to lying on applications for loans, credit cards and bank accounts in the months leading up to the killing.

Circuit Judge Glenn R. Croshaw convicted Pamela Laverne Campbell, 45, of making a false statement to obtain money or credit and two counts each of obtaining a credit card by false statements and obtaining money by false pretenses.

Campbell will spend nine months in jail.

Campbell’s brother, Tony Smith, 40, is serving a 50-year prison sentence for malicious wounding and conspiracy in the beating and strangulation death of Lettrelle Thornton, 69, on March 1, 2008. At Smith’s trial in January 2011, prosecutors alleged Campbell hired her brother to kill Thornton for the tens of thousands of dollars in life insurance Campbell stood to receive. But charges of conspiracy and soliciting murder against Campbell were withdrawn for lack of evidence.

In June 2007, Campbell opened checking and savings accounts at Navy Federal Credit Union by falsely claiming she was the sister of another bank member, according to a stipulation of facts filed in the case.

Campbell made the same claim when she applied between July and November of that year for a $10,800 bank loan as well as two credit cards, on which she charged nearly $15,000, the court document said.

Campbell later defaulted on the loan and the credit cards, the stipulation said.

Campbell applied for a third credit card with Thornton in November 2007; Campbell used the card to pay for $12,000 in plastic surgery procedures a month after Thornton’s death, the court document states.

Campbell never made any payments on the card, it said.

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com