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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994                   TAG: 9402110113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE                                LENGTH: Short

CAMERAS BANNED AT MURDER TRIAL

A Circuit Court judge said Thursday that he will not allow cameras in the courtroom during the capital murder trial of a man accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl and beating her to death.

Judge George Honts said that Virginia's cameras-in-the-courtroom law does not allow the news media to videotape or take still photographs when a case involves sexual assault.

Prosecutors contend that William R. Layne kidnapped Phadra Carter because he wanted to sexually abuse her. Layne is charged with capital murder and abduction with the intent to defile.

Carter was taken from her home in Rockbridge County early Sept. 18. Her body was found four days later in a shallow grave in Botetourt County. Authorities believe she was beaten to death with 10 blows from a tire iron.

Layne will go on trial the week of Feb. 28 in Winchester, where the case has been moved because of extensive pretrial publicity.

Layne's attorney, Terry Grimes, did not object to media requests to use cameras in the courtroom. Grimes said he believed that the prohibition on photographs in sexual-assault cases was intended to protect the privacy of victims who are still alive. Grimes said cameras never have caused major problems in the cases he has been involved in.

Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Hagan, however, argued that cameras should not be allowed inside the courtroom during Layne's trial.

"This is not a victimless crime," Hagan said. Carter's family continues to be victimized by her death, he said.

"It's a lurid crime," precisely the type of case in which the General Assembly wanted to keep cameras out of the courtroom, Hagan said.

by CNB