ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701300051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A Roanoke teen-ager admitted Wednesday that he stabbed a man to death during an argument about insults to the man's mother.
Robert Reed, 18, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter as part of a plea agreement that reduced the charge from murder. He faces up to 10 years in prison, and will be sentenced later in Roanoke Circuit Court.
Reed was charged July 28 with the murder of Michael Dent, a 20-year-old resident of the Hurt Park housing project.
Detective M.E. Meador of the Roanoke Police Department testified that Dent sought out Reed at his Hurt Park apartment, apparently angry about derogatory comments Reed reportedly made about Dent's mother.
Reed told police that Dent punched him in the face as he answered a knock on his apartment door. A 19-year-old who had accompanied Dent then pulled out a knife as they fought in the apartment, he said.
Reed said he managed to get the knife away from his attackers during the struggle and stabbed Dent. Both men then fled, he said.
Dent collapsed at nearby Salem Avenue and 17th Street and died a short time later at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital from a stab wound to the chest. Reed, cut on the arm during the struggle, also was taken to the hospital.
Reed, who was 17 at the time, was the first Roanoke juvenile to be prosecuted under new laws designed to put more violent young offenders behind bars. The law automatically moved Reed's case to Circuit Court for an adult trial instead of leaving that decision to a judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Defense attorneys had argued at a previous hearing that Reed acted in self-defense.
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