Faith, and Friendliness, Helped in Hostage Crisis

Va. Couple Built Rapport With Gunman

Robert and Frances Belote had just finished a lunch of hot dogs and fresh butter beans from their garden when a man stormed into their Leesburg home through an unlocked back door. The man pointed a revolver at them and shouted: "Give me all your money!"

Frances Belote, 82, watched as the stranger cut a phone cord and used it to tie her 83-year-old husband's hands behind his back. The couple's lazy Friday afternoon on their quiet dead-end street in Leesburg had shattered, and the Belotes feared that the agitated intruder might be the last person they ever saw.

"I said to myself, 'This is the end. This is it,' " Frances said yesterday. "But God was here. We felt His presence, and it gave us peace, and we were able to be calm."

They spent the next nine hours as hostages, held in their bathroom by a gunman who police said had reached the end of a crime spree that included a botched jewelry store robbery, a home invasion and robbery, and the theft of a vehicle.

The intruder -- identified by police as William Spencer, 49, of Baltimore -- planned to rob the Belotes and make off with their car before state police SWAT teams and local and county authorities surrounded the house. In the end, though, the couple's calm demeanor helped police end the standoff peacefully and take the intruder into custody.

Recounting the ordeal on their living room sofa yesterday, the Belotes described an unusual encounter that included fearing for their lives as well as moments of bonding with their assailant. They didn't know Spencer's name during the ordeal, but Spencer called them Bob and Frances.

They said Spencer seemed like a good person, deep down, whose life had gone awry, someone who probably never intended to hurt them and simply happened upon their home while seeking a way to escape police.

"I sensed good feelings from him, that he could be a good person," Frances said. "I was praying for him the whole time."

D. Burke Walker, Spencer's court-appointed lawyer, said his client is cooperating with police and "understands the situation he is in and wants to ease all the problems he has created."

The Belotes spent much of their time as hostages in a bathroom at the end of their home's main hallway, a bathroom Spencer chose because it had no windows. The couple said Spencer took $50 in cash from them -- all they had at the time -- before rummaging through the home looking for valuables.

At one point, Spencer appeared with three rings in his palm, rings he took from a box on top of a bedroom dresser. Frances saw that they were her engagement ring, her wedding band and an onyx ring celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary. After Spencer remarked that the rings were pretty, she looked him in the eye and calmly told him that those rings are sacred to her and that he couldn't take them.

"I told him to put them back," she said. "And he did. He put them back in the box."