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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 20, 1993                   TAG: 9304200302
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER                                LENGTH: Medium

TEEN TO BE TRIED BOTH AS ADULT AND JUVENILE

Michael J. Reynolds, 17, is scheduled for a trial in Circuit Court June 1 on a malicious wounding indictment that alleges he shot a student last September at the Alternative Education Center.

But other, less serious charges were dismissed and remanded to Juvenile Court by Circuit Judge Diane Strickland at a hearing Monday.

Reynolds' lawyers had argued he should not face trial as an adult on all the charges, which include malicious wounding, use of a firearm, carrying a gun on school property, shooting into a vehicle and an unrelated count of distributing crack cocaine.

Assistant Public Defender Steve Milani said the charges that carried less than 20 years in prison belonged in Juvenile Court.

Strickland agreed and remanded those cases to Juvenile Court, leaving the malicious wounding and cocaine charges for an adult trial in Circuit Court.

The hearing marked the latest jurisdictional tangle in the case. A Juvenile Court judge had originally ruled Reynolds should not be tried as an adult, but prosecutors appealed his decision to Circuit Court, where it was reversed in January.

Reynolds is accused of shooting 18-year-old Shawn Brown as he sat in the driver's seat of his car the afternoon of Sept. 16 in the parking lot of Roanoke's Alternative Education Center on Orange Avenue.

Witnesses have testified that Reynolds then chased Brown through the parking lot - still firing shots at him - and down a school hallway, while other students ran for cover.

Brown, who was shot in the hip, had said a dispute with Reynolds started several weeks earlier when he caught him trying to steal a stereo. Defense attorneys, however, have said Reynolds did not initiate the contacts and was only trying to protect himself and family members.

Since the shooting, Reynolds has been in custody - where his attorneys say he feels safer than if he were set free.