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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990                   TAG: 9006070307
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

APPEAL REJECTED IN DRUG SLAYING

A Roanoke teen-ager charged with killing a man after losing patience over an unpaid drug debt of $50 lost an appeal Wednesday to have his trial returned to juvenile court.

Attorneys for Harold Emanuel Anderson, 16, had asked a Roanoke Circuit Court judge to reverse a decision to try Anderson as an adult and return the case to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

Describing his client as someone who reads on a third-grade level and is "on the verge" of mental retardation, court-appointed attorney David Bowers said Anderson is not capable of facing a jury of his peers in Circuit Court.

But Judge Clifford Weckstein rejected the appeal, saying the seriousness of the offense and "the interest of the community" precluded treating Anderson as a juvenile.

However, Weckstein ruled that an accompanying charge of using a firearm in the commission of a felony be tried in juvenile court. And even though Anderson faces a murder trial as an adult, he could still be sentenced as a juvenile.

Anderson, who was 15 at the time of the Feb. 7 shooting, has told police he shot and killed a man because he was tired of hearing excuses about an unpaid drug debt of $50, according to earlier testimony.

James P. Ferrell, 22, died a short time after he was shot. The shooting took place in an area of the Lansdowne housing project that was known for crack dealing.

Bowers argued that Anderson's IQ score of 75 - just five points above the level at which someone is considered mentally retarded - and other test scores and psychiatric evaluations presented "glaring evidence" that he should be dealt with as a juvenile.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Hill responded that while Anderson's test scores were low, they clearly showed he was not mentally retarded.

A .38-caliber pistol allegedly used in the shooting was given to Anderson by an 8-year-old boy he knew only by nickname, according to the statement he gave police. Shortly before the shooting, Anderson and another youth had argued about whose gun was "prettier," earlier testimony has shown.

by CNB