ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Christopher Shawn Wheeler, who was 15 years old when he was charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a Wythe County deputy in late 1994, will not face the death penalty when he is tried.
Circuit Judge Colin Campbell ruled Wednesday that Wheeler, now 16, can be tried on no higher a charge than second-degree murder. The trial is tentatively scheduled to start June5.
Wheeler admitted to authorities that he wounded Deputy Cliff Dicker with a papers on him Dec. 6, 1994. The boy then took the deputy's 9mm pistol and fired the fatal shot.
But Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge William Thomas would not admit the confession in a hearing last August because the boy's grandmother, with whom he was living, had not been present to give permission for Wheeler to be questioned.
The prosecution and defense then agreed, and the judge concurred, that evidence at the juvenile hearing would be sufficient for a second-degree murder charge.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship said at the time that the prosecution would try to get the confession readmitted at the Circuit Court level and have the capital murder charge reinstated. Defense attorneys Jonathan Venzie and Fred Werth said they would fight the imposition of any charge higher than second-degree murder.
Because Thomas ruled that Wheeler should be tried as an adult, a decision on the level of the charge rested with the Circuit Court. A grand jury indicted Wheeler on a charge of murder without specifying the degree.
After extensive research, Campbell ruled the charge could not go higher than the second-degree murder charge sent up from Juvenile Court.
Even though the case has been moved to Circuit Court, Campbell said, the Juvenile Court's jurisdiction over Wheeler would not end until he was convicted of some charge. Campbell said a reading of the applicable law offers two interpretations: that the juvenile should be tried on the charge transferred from the Juvenile Court, or that the Circuit Court has jurisdiction to allow any charge that might be filed after the transfer.
"If the court accepts this second interpretation, the result would be that the commonwealth could get transferred a charge for a minor offense against a juvenile and then seek an indictment for a crime carrying a greater degree of adult punishment. This in essence would circumvent the structure of the juvenile transfer provisions," Campbell wrote in his opinion.
Accepting the second interpretation ``in essence would circumvent the structure of the juvenile transfer provisions,'' allowing the state to seek harsher punishment as an adult, Campbell wrote in his opinion.
A service of remembrance for Dicker, as a deputy killed in the line of duty, has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday at Highland Memorial Gardens in Dublin.
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