Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403120034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She vowed he'd die for what he did to Phadra.
"I promised her," Cindy Layne says.
But on Tuesday a jury in Winchester decided to spare Billy Layne - it gave him a life sentence.
"I thought for sure he'd get the death penalty," Cindy Layne said two days later. "I just don't see how they could hear all that stuff and not give it to him. Nobody deserves to die the way Phadra did."
Billy Layne kidnapped his 11-year-old stepniece, Phadra Dannielle Carter, from her trailer home in Rockbridge County on Sept. 18. Then, investigators say, he drove her to Botetourt County, sexually abused her, beat her with a tire iron and chopped her legs to fit her into a shallow grave.
When a child dies, the parents are overwhelmed by guilt. No matter how many people tell her she's not to blame, Cindy Layne can't shake the feeling. It's even worse now that Phadra's killer has escaped the punishment she believes he deserves.
"I feel like I failed her again. I failed her - just like I failed to protect her in my home."
Layne testified that she was awakened by noises about 2 a.m. Sept. 18. She was groggy from medication she was taking, but she was finally jolted awake when Phadra began screaming: "No!"
Phadra was gone. The front door was ajar and Phadra's blanket lay on the front steps.
Layne says she saw a lanky male disappear into the darkness. Then a car started. She had to jump out of the way as it screeched toward her. She was still running after the station wagon as it disappeared from the trailer park.
Some news accounts made much of her grogginess from the medication and the two or three beers she had earlier that evening. "They made me sound like some kind of drug addict."
The muscle relaxers and pain pills are prescribed by a doctor because she has TMJ Syndrome, a painful jaw condition. "I never took any more than the doctor told me to."
A couple months after Phadra died, Cindy Layne and her husband Marty moved from the trailer park in Arnolds Valley to Raphine. She couldn't stand to stay there after all that had happened.
During the trial, she forced herself to listen to the details of Phadra's murder and burial. When Billy Layne looked over and smiled at his family, it seemed to her that he was laughing at her.
Before he was sentenced, Billy Layne testified he was so drunk the weekend Phadra was kidnapped he couldn't remember.
"I know he remembers every damn thing," Cindy Layne says. "I don't know what makes somebody so evil that they could do this to a little girl. I've thought about doing evil things to him. But to do it - I don't know if I could."
Most of Billy Layne's family stood by him during the trial and after. That left Marty - Billy's brother and Phadra's stepfather - caught in the middle.
"A couple of them come up to me and Marty and said things," Cindy Layne said. "It just about crushed him. He has lost all his family - and our little girl."
She's done her best to hang onto the memories of her little girl.
Phadra loved company. She'd get sad - have temper tantrums even - when people would have to leave and go home.
"She'd want them to stay forever," her mother recalls. "She just appreciated everything so much. It's like she knew she wouldn't be here long and she had to take in everything - like it was the last time she'd have a chance to see it and smell it."
But the good memories don't last long. They're chased away by the images Cindy Layne can't get out of her head: The car disappearing from the trailer park. The terror Phadra must have felt as she was driven toward her death.
Cindy Layne broke down and cried several times on the witness stand as she testified about that night. But when the judge asked her if she wanted a few minutes to compose herself, she said no. She'd go on.
She'd promised Phadra.
The last thing the prosecutor asked her to do was the hardest - identify Phadra's panties and nightshirt. Layne dropped her head and sobbed.
She was still crying when the defense attorney stood up and changed the subject. He wanted to know why a new copy of Phadra's birth certificate recently had been issued.
Cindy Layne didn't quite hear the question. She raised her head and said simply: "August the 1st of 1982. Around 9 p.m. On a Sunday evening."
by CNB