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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 6, 1995                   TAG: 9506060142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEEN-AGER TOOK 4 LIVES: SHOULD STATE TAKE HIS?

A teen-ager convicted of capital murder in the slayings of four of his relatives should be sentenced to die or he might kill again, a prosecutor said Monday to a jury that convicted the youth.

Marvin Owens, 16, is ``the youngest mass murderer we've had in Virginia,'' Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys told the jury of nine women and three men that last Friday found Owens guilty of killing his grandmother, a half-brother and two cousins.

But Cynthia D. Barnaby, one of Owens' attorneys, said her client had shown no previous inclination to violence.

``You must consider his background,'' Barnaby said. ``He has nothing in his life that adds up to discipline, that adds up to structure.''

The jury began deliberations on whether to sentence Owens to death or life in prison. If he is condemned to die, he would be the youngest person in Virginia in modern times sent to death row.

Circuit Judge Robert B. Cromwell Jr. sent the jury home for the night after 11/2 hours of deliberation. The panel was to take up the case again this morning.

Owens, who will turn 17 later this month, was found guilty of the execution-style slayings last July 22 of his grandmother, Evelyn Ward, 63; Robert L. Ward Jr., his 14-year-old half-brother; and two cousins, Clifton Harper, 19, and Thelma Harper, 37.

Prosecutors contended Owens went to the house where the victims were found to rob Harper of $1,200 in drug money. They said the other three were killed because Owens didn't want to leave witnesses.

``If this man at his age is capable ... of totally eliminating four loved ones for $1,200 in drug proceeds, what is he capable of if you give him a really good reason to get mad?'' Humphreys asked.

Barnaby, however, said executing Owens would serve no purpose. ``Killing Marvin Owens does not bring his grandmother or the three other people back to life,'' she said.

At Monday's sentencing hearing, two of Owens' parole officers and a counselor at a juvenile center where Owens was sent testified that he was never a discipline problem.

He spent time in several juvenile correctional facilities on cocaine charges.

``Nothing behaviorally would set Marvin aside from any of the other kids,'' said Charles Dockery, a counselor at the Hanover Juvenile Detention Center.

Owens was released from Hanover in early May 1994 after six months of detention. His grandmother agreed to take custody because no other suitable home could be found.

by CNB