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A former child sex-abuse victim charged with the prison-cell slaying of one of Virginia's most notorious predator is no longer facing the death penalty.

The Sussex County Circuit Court Clerk's office confirmed that the capital-murder charge against Dewey Keith Venable, 25, has been reduced to first-degree murder for the slaying of Richard Alvin Ausley last year.

Sussex County Commonwealth's Attorney Lyndia Person Ramsey did not return calls about the case.

Venable's lawyer, R. Clinton Clary of Lawrenceville, said that Ramsey no longer believed the case was appropriate for the death penalty. In Virginia, the premeditated murder of a prison inmate by another inmate is eligible to be prosecuted as a capital crime.

John C. Boatwright II, a lawyer with the state's Office of the Capital Defender, said he is no longer assisting Clary. Defendants charged with capital murder are entitled to at least two court-appointed attorneys, but not first-degree murder suspects, Boatwright said.

Clary said a trial date has been set for Feb. 27 and 28.

In a horrific 1973 crime that gained national attention, Ausley chained a 13-year-old Portsmouth boy, Paul Martin Andrews, in an underground box and repeatedly assaulted him. Andrews was rescued by some passing rabbit hunters.

Ausley was convicted and sentenced to 48 years in prison.

Then in 2002, when Andrews learned Ausley was about to be paroled, he successfully led a fight to fund the state's civil-commitment program for violent sexual predators.

The program keeps selected violent sexual predators off the street by confining them to a treatment center after they are released from prison.

As it turned out, Ausley was not placed in the program because another victim came forward. Ausley was convicted of yet another sexual assault from 1972 and was given more prison time.

While Ausley was at Sussex I State Prison, Venable was placed in his cell.

On the night of Jan. 13, 2004, Ausley, 64, was strangled and beaten to death. Venable was charged with capital murder.

At the time of Ausley's slaying, Venable was serving an 18-year, nine-month sentence for nine felony convictions in Virginia Beach, including carjacking, abduction, robbery and illegal use of a firearm. All of the convictions were in 2001.

In 1987 an Ocean View man was charged in Norfolk with two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count each of sodomy and indecent liberties against Venable. In 1988, the man pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated sexual battery.

Andrews has corresponded with Venable since Ausley's death.