Murdered teacher’s friend tells of threats

Friday, July 18, 1997 | 9:11 a.m.

The night before she was killed, Las Vegas schoolteacher Roxanne Logan was despondent over her relationship with Charles Manley and bared her soul to a friend over drinks at a local bar.

Manley, Logan's live-in boyfriend, is on trial for the killing. He sat stoically Thursday in the courtroom of District Judge Sally Loehrer as he listened to the testimony of Terry Hedrick.

"She didn't like the way he was treating her," Hedrick told the jury under questioning by Prosecutor Dan Seaton. She said Logan told her Manley had been abusive during their four-month relationship and told her "no man would ever want her -- she was not worth anything."

Logan also confided that Manley had threatened to kill her and then commit suicide, Hedrick testified.

Hedrick said she drove the Ullom Elementary School teacher home about midnight after their barroom chat because Logan had had too much to drink and couldn't drive. As Hedrick helped Logan open the front door of her home, Manley got up off the couch with a gun in his hand and started walking toward the two women.

He immediately put the gun away and came out of the house and apologized, saying the women had startled him, she said.

Hedrick said she heard on the television news less than 48 hours later that Logan had been killed and that her first thought was "he killed her, I can't believe it." She said it was a combination of her conversation with Logan and seeing Manley with the weapon that prompted the thought.

Hedrick, under cross-examin-ation by defense attorney Mark Wolf, acknowledged that Manley had put his arm around Logan as he guided her into the house to sleep off her intoxication.

"He seemed concerned about her welfare," Hedrick said. The comment appeared to draw tears from the defendant, who was seen briefly wiping his eyes with a tissue.

Manley fled, but four days after the killing turned himself into police through a California attorney.

The defendant later fled again, was profiled on the television show "America's Most Wanted," and was eventually located in New Jersey. He was reaching for a gun when authorities entered his motel room to take him into custody, according to Seaton's opening statement.

If the jury convicts Manley of first-degree murder, it will then have to decide if the appropriate punishment is the death sentence or life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.