Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509060075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A grand jury indicted Anderson on charges of aggravated malicious wounding in connection with the May 3 attack on Roger Boothe, who was beaten to the ground and stomped in the head outside a Mountain Avenue convenience store.
The beating left Boothe in a coma for several weeks, and prosecutors say the 39-year-old suffered head injuries that likely will leave him permanently disabled.
Another teen-ager, 17-year-old Leo A. Harper, also was indicted Tuesday in the attack on Boothe.
The two youths also were indicted in connection with an attack several hours earlier in which another Old Southwest Roanoke resident was beaten in the head with a metal pipe after he answered a knock on his door.
Taking advantage of a new law that lowers the minimum age at which a juvenile can be tried as an adult from 15 to 14, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease had asked that Anderson's case be transferred to Circuit Court for an adult trial.
A judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court ruled in June that Anderson and Harper should be treated as juveniles, but a circuit judge reversed the decision after prosecutors appealed.
Anderson is the first 14-year-old in Roanoke to be indicted under the new law, and one of only a handful statewide.
The law lowering the minimum age for juveniles to be tried as adults was enacted last year by the General Assembly 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.
by CNB