Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 30, 1995 TAG: 9506300065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A Juvenile and Domestic and Relations judge turned down the request, but Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease said she plans to appeal his decision.
In what DeWease said was one of the more heinous crimes she has handled, the 14-year-old and a 17-year-old were charged May 3 with beating two men in Old Southwest, sending one of them into a coma from which he only recently emerged.
Roger Lee Booth, 39, remains hospitalized, DeWease said, and suffers from severe head injuries that have "robbed him of any meaningful quality of life."
It was believed to be the first time in Roanoke since the law was passed last year that prosecutors have asked that a 14-year-old be tried as an adult. The law lowered the minimum age at which a juvenile can face adult trial from 15 to 14.
The law was enacted by the General Assembly at a time when legislators were being asked to take more punitive steps in dealing with a juvenile crime problem that some say is growing out of control in Virginia.
But at Thursday's hearing before Judge John Ferguson, the main emphasis was on whether the 14-year-old should be given another chance in the juvenile justice system, which offers more opportunities for treatment and counseling than he would receive in prison.
"What happens to a 14-year-old who goes into the adult system? That's my concern," Ferguson said.
Assistant Public Defender Michelle Derrico argued that laws allowing for enhanced juvenile punishment could keep her client locked up in a juvenile home until his 21st birthday, while giving him the treatment he needs.
"Or we can chunk him into the penitentiary, let him out when he's paroled, and he'll be the same thing - except older," Derrico said.
DeWease responded that while the 14-year-old "may have had some hard knocks in his life, I don't think the court can forget that Mr. Booth has been robbed of any meaningful quality of life.
"If you have 14-year-olds who are going to go out and commit crimes of this nature, then they deserve to be prosecuted and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," DeWease said.
After ruling that there was probable cause to support charges of malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding against both youths, Ferguson decided to keep both cases in juvenile court. DeWease said she will appeal his decision to Circuit Court.
Because the case was held in juvenile court, Ferguson ordered that the names of the 14-year-old and the 17-year-old, who has turned 18, not be made public.
Police have said earlier that Booth, of Dale Avenue Southeast, was found lying on a sidewalk on Mountain Avenue in Old Southwest about 2 a.m. May 3. He was bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose, and witnesses said he had been stomped in the head as two youths attacked him.
The beating began with a verbal altercation, police said, but details were not available.
Authorities then learned that several hours earlier, 45-year-old David Chase had answered a knock on the door of his Mountain Avenue home and was beaten by two youths with what appeared to him to be a piece of metal pipe.
The 14-year-old, who police said weighed 200 pounds, was arrested along with the 17-year-old a short time later. Court testimony Thursday indicated that the younger teen was more involved in Booth's beating.
"I was trying to help" Booth, the 17-year-old said, testifying that the 14-year-old was "just tearing him apart."
by CNB