ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press
AS HIS STEPMOTHER got home, the boy was leaving the house. Later, she found her little girl's body in an upstairs bathroom.
A teen-age boy charged with murdering his 8-year-old half-sister will be held without bond pending a preliminary hearing Oct. 1, a judge said Thursday.
Zackary Carter, looking frail in an orange jail jumpsuit, was arraigned before Judge Davis Reed of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
The boy, 14, was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday night, a day after the body of Cierra Rose Carter was discovered by her mother, Detective Don Rimer said.
The boy had disappeared after the shooting. Police found him Wednesday afternoon walking along a street near his home, Rimer said. He said the youth apparently had been staying in a shelter he built in the woods.
Police did not know a motive.
The girl's mother told police that Zackary, her stepson, was leaving the house to visit a friend when she arrived home Tuesday evening, Rimer said. The mother found the girl's body in the second-floor bathroom a short time later.
Autopsy results showed the girl died from a gunshot wound to the head, Rimer said. The weapon could have been a shotgun found in the house, he said.
Zackary and Cierra Carter had the same father but different mothers, Rimer said.
A neighbor, Dan Lear, said Zackary came to Virginia Beach less than a year ago to live with his father, also named Zackary, and his stepmother.
The boy's father is a petty officer first class in the Navy, and his stepmother is an office manager, Lear said. The family lived along a newly built cul-de-sac that is home to several Navy families.
Other neighbors described Zackary Carter as a quiet youth who played an electric guitar and liked to ride a skateboard. No serious conflicts between the two youngsters were apparent, they said.
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB