ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130120
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
When the argument started, 17-year-old Robert Reed was accused of insulting someone's mother. By the time it was over, he faced a charge of murder.
A Roanoke judge certified the charge to a grand jury Thursday, after hearing evidence about how a petty name-calling dispute led to a fatal stabbing the afternoon of July 28 at Hurt Park public housing development.
Reed - the first Roanoke juvenile to be prosecuted under new laws designed to put more young offenders behind bars - is charged with killing 20-year-old Michael Dent.
At a preliminary hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, 19-year-old Timothy Morris testified that he and Dent decided to confront Reed about some comments they had heard he'd made about Dent's mother.
After arguing at the doorstep of a Hurt Park apartment, Dent slapped Reed in the face, Morris testified. As Dent and Morris turned to walk away, Reed followed them down the sidewalk and repeatedly asked "What's up?" Morris testified.
At that point, he said, Reed pulled out a pocket knife and stabbed Dent in the chest.
Dent collapsed at Salem Avenue and 17th Street, and died a short time later at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Reed, who apparently was cut on the arm during the altercation, also was taken to the hospital, where he gave a statement to police.
Detective M.E. Meador testified that Reed admitted he stabbed Dent, but said he did it in self-defense.
According to Reed, it was Morris who pulled a knife during the fight that broke out after Morris and Dent showed up at his girlfriend's apartment.
"I'm in my house, and they're jumping on me," he told Meador.
Reed said he managed to get the knife from Morris during the struggle and stabbed Dent. Both men then fled, he said.
According to Reed, Morris and Dent had been out to get him ever since he moved from Detroit to live with his aunt in Hurt Park this year.
"They were just trying to run the project. They didn't want me there," he said.
Defense attorneys Jonathan Kurtin and Harvey Lutins asked Judge John Ferguson to dismiss the charge, arguing that Reed's self-defense explanation made more sense than Morris' account.
While Morris testified that Dent was stabbed just once, Kurtin pointed out, an autopsy determined that he suffered other cuts and bruises "consistent with being in a physical altercation."
But Ferguson denied the motion and certified the charge to a grand jury that will meet in October.
Under previous laws dealing with juvenile offenders, Ferguson would have been asked to make a second decision - whether Reed should be tried as an adult in Circuit Court.
But this time, that decision had already been made by the General Assembly, which approved sweeping changes to Virginia's juvenile justice system that took effect July 1. Under the new laws, juveniles 14 and older charged with murder or aggravated malicious wounding are automatically tried as adults.
For other violent felonies - including abduction, malicious wounding, rape and robbery - prosecutors have the option of sending juvenile offenders to Circuit Court.
Although Reed will be prosecuted as an adult, a Circuit Court judge could still sentence him as a juvenile, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Melvin Hill said. Reed, who has been held in Coyner Springs Juvenile Detention since his arrest, was transferred to the Roanoke City Jail after Thursday's hearing.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines KEYWORDS: ROMURby CNB