Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406170108
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Ethan T. Charlton, 19, was found guilty of unlawful wounding earlier in Pulaski County Circuit Court. Thursday, he received a five-year suspended prison sentence and was released on time served while awaiting trial.
He will be placed on probation for five years.
Charlton was one of four people - three men and an underaged boy - charged with beating the 15-year-old boy, who said he was accused of being a police informant.
At a preliminary hearing last year, the boy testified he was beaten with a baseball bat and threatened with a razor-knife in April 1993 after being approached by three people while he was walking on Baskerville Street. The men accused him of working with police.
A Radford grand jury had handed down drug indictments a few days earlier that included cocaine distribution charges against one of the men.
Authorities have said the teen-age victim was not an informant.
The boy sustained a broken nose and jaw and had to have laser surgery on an eye. He was able to flee to a nearby gasoline station and the rescue squad was called.
by CNB