Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 23, 1990                   TAG: 9003232342
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Laurence Hammack Staff Writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

16-YEAR-OLD TO BE TRIED AS ADULT IN KILLING

Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Philip Trompeter ruled Thursday that Anderson should be tried in Circuit Court.

"You just seem to have this reckless disregard for the feelings of others," Trompeter told Anderson, who was described by a psychologist as having a "primitive personality."

Earlier testimony has shown Anderson complained that James P. Ferrell of Roanoke owed him $50 for drugs shortly before gunfire broke out at the Lansdowne housing project in Northwest Roanoke the night of Feb. 7.

"I'm going to get him," a witness quoted Anderson as saying.

Ferrell, 22, died a short time after he was shot in the buttocks at Centre Avenue and Naho Street - the site of numerous complaints of drug dealing and drug-related violence.

Shortly before the shooting, Anderson and another youth were comparing handguns and arguing over which one was "prettier," a witness testified.

After being struck, Ferrell managed to run a short distance before he collapsed on the sidewalk. He died about an hour later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Hill had asked that Anderson be tried as an adult. But defense attorney David Bowers argued that the case should remain in Juvenile Court because tests showed his client is close to being mentally retarded.

Bowers said he was especially concerned that Anderson took an IQ test recently and scored about 20 points lower than he did on a similar test administered several years ago.

Although Trompeter said the drop was "very perplexing," he ruled Anderson's score was still above the level of mental retardation. State law does not allow a mentally retarded juvenile to be tried as an adult.

Psychiatric tests have described Anderson as "playfully childish, impulsive, immature, relatively crude and primitive."

Anderson, who wore a thick ski jacket and acid-washed jeans to the hearing, showed no emotion as deputies led him back to a juvenile detention home.

Anderson has been held in the detention home since he was apprehended in Akron, Ohio, after fleeing Roanoke on a Greyhound bus shortly after the shooting.