THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510280332
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
A 19-year-old Elizabeth City man will serve between 13 and 18 years in prison for shooting another man to death at a birthday party March 17, a judge ruled Friday.
Tracey J. Brite, of the 300 block of Beechwood Ave., had pleaded guilty this week to second-degree murder in the shooting. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated felony assault charge for shooting a man in the leg about a month earlier.
Superior Court Judge J. Herbert W. Small, who issued the sentence after a two-hour hearing, was not swayed by defense arguments that Brite had killed 24-year-old Anthony T. Saunders to protect his brother.
The 13-year, 4-month minimum sentence was close to the longest minimum term Small could prescribe, Assistant District Attorney Mike Johnson said after the hearing.
Brite also was sentenced to 24-38 months on the felony assault charge, but the terms will run concurrently under a plea agreement. Brite's behavior in prison will help determine when his 13- to 18-year sentence expires, officials said.
Prosecution and defense witnesses testified that the March 17 shooting stemmed from a fight that Saunders apparently started with Brite's older brother, Barrett, during a party at the American Legion Hut on South Martin Street.
Both men had been drinking, according to testimony, and when Barrett Brite accidently brushed against Saunders, Saunders began hitting him.
``I had been walking across the floor and I seen Anthony beating Barrett,'' testified Antionette Parker, whose birthday was being celebrated. ``Barrett was just laying on the floor, and Anthony was just kicking him and kicking him.''
Parker said she started pulling on Saunders' jacket while others joined in to stop the fight, and, ``It happened all at once.''
Saunders, lying on the floor, was shot twice in the back with a .32-caliber automatic handgun. Several witnesses testified that Tracey Brite had pulled the trigger. It was later shown that the murder weapon was the same gun Brite had used to shoot Carlton Tyrone Griffin in the leg on Feb. 21.
Brite had been released on bond March 9 in connection with the earlier shooting. One condition of his release was that he remain at home from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Johnson said Friday. The murder occurred around 11:30 p.m.
Brite, hearing that officials were looking for him, turned himself in at the police station the day after the shooting, but denied being at the scene, Elizabeth City Police Capt. W.O. Leary testified.
Wilford Saunders of Fayetteville, Anthony Saunders' stepfather since Saunders was 2 months old, asked Small to issue the maximum possible punishment.
Anthony Saunders, Wilford Saunders read from a statement, had been working as a security guard and bodyguard in New York but had decided to return to North Carolina and pursue a medical career. The Currituck County High School graduate had been in town visiting his grandmother.
Saunders had a 21-month-old daughter and 6-year-old stepdaughter.
``As a victim in this senseless, cowardess, murderous act, I find it inexcusable that my son's life was taken in this way,'' said Wilford Saunders, who directs police and public safety at Methodist College in Fayetteville. ``To be deliberately shot in the back, not once, but twice, is one of the most inhumane acts of taking another person's life.''
Brite's lawyers contended Brite had been protecting himself or his family in both shootings.
Attorney G. Wendell Spivey argued that the Feb. 21 shooting occurred only after Brite had been shot at twice in an ongoing argument over a woman both Brite and Griffin wanted to date.
During a third altercation in which Brite felt threatened, Spivey said, ``he pulled a gun and shot him in the leg. . . . He said he intentionally did not aim high.''
Brite's attorney in the murder case, Samuel B. Dixon, said the shooting of Saunders was not a typical killing.
``This isn't a cold-blooded murder,'' Dixon argued. ``The victim, from all the evidence we've heard, started a fight with the defendant's brother. . . . This man really believed that he was helping save his brother's life.''
Testimony showed that Barrett Brite was apparently left unconscious, with a fractured jaw, and was bleeding from the mouth after the fight. One witness testified she had thought Barrett Brite was dead.
Tracey Brite, wearing blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt, sat quietly throughout the hearing Friday. He did not make a statement.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL MURDER SENTENCE by CNB