Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thursday afternoon, Thomas Arthur Burton turned himself in to police. Investigators charged the 28-year-old Southwest Roanoke man with murder and robbery in Carter's death. Burton also was charged with using a firearm to commit murder. Late Thursday, he was being held without bond in the Roanoke jail.
Carter, 48, was shot about 2:23 a.m. June 30 in his home in the 2000 block of Memorial Avenue Southwest. Carter's wife, Betty Hood Carter, said she heard her husband arguing with a man moments earlier.
Police found her husband lying in a pool of blood near the kitchen. He had been shot in the head at close range and died Saturday at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Arrest warrants were filed Tuesday against Burton, of the 2200 block of Sanford Avenue Southwest.
His arrest was the first time police publicly linked Carter's death with another shooting. About the same time Carter was shot, Michael James Houser, 24, arrived at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley with a gunshot wound to his stomach. Police now say Houser was shot at Carter's home.
Police have charged Burton with the malicious wounding of Houser, who has been discharged. Police would not comment about why Houser and Burton were at Carter's home.
Late Thursday, Betty Hood Carter sat next to the room where her husband was shot to death, the room where her friends had just whitewashed the walls.
She didn't know Burton had been arrested. She said she didn't know him. Last week, she said she could never return home. Now, she said, it would be hard to leave.
"I can't leave now; my husband's shoes are in there," she said, her hand pointing to the living room. "His footprints are out there," she added, running to the front walk, where Randall Carter had imprinted his bare feet, size 13, in the cement.
"They did not know the man," she said of her husband. "Otherwise, they would not have walked in this house."
by CNB