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

DATE: FRIDAY, November 19, 1993                   TAG: 9311190104
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SISTER SAYS BROTHER BURNED HER HOUSE OVER BEER MONEY

Elsie Wray said her brother, Billy Wayne Carter, had been threatening her for years.

So when he told her Thursday he was going to burn her house down if she didn't give him beer money, she responded the best way she could.

She stripped him of his matches and played a game of solitaire on her kitchen table until Carter, 47, came down from his room.

" `John, give me a cigarette,' " Wray said Carter told her husband. " `I'm going to get the hell out of here. I've set the house on fire.' "

When John Wray walked to the top of the steps leading to Carter's room, he could see flames shooting from the wardrobe inside the house on Morton Avenue Southeast. He yelled to his wife, who called 911 before running from the house.

Shortly after 2 p.m., Roanoke firefighters were on the scene, but smoke was rolling out of every crack in the house. A portion of Carter's room was charred, and soot ruined some newly painted walls in the two-story frame house.

Firefighters had the blaze under control within five minutes.

District Fire Chief Bobbie Slayton, after he was told the blaze had been set, spotted Carter walking down the street. A couple of youngsters ran up to Carter and told him that Slayton wanted to talk to him.

" `I know I'm going away for a long time,' " Slayton remembered Carter saying.

Carter faces an arson charge.

Elsie Wray, 63, said she had taken her brother in and tried to help him during the past 15 years.

by CNB