THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260291
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 146 lines
A 19-year-old allegedly forced his way into his recently estranged girlfriend's house early Friday morning during a slumber party, stabbed four teenagers - one of them fatally - and sexually assaulted at least two of them.
Police said the rampage in the Camelot neighborhood was part of a domestic dispute. Friends and neighbors said the girlfriend was trying to break off the relationship.
Curtis Lee White II has been charged with capital murder, three counts of malicious wounding, rape, attempted rape, two counts of sodomy, and one count each of abduction and burglary, said Detective Richard Black.
The murder victim, Michelle Harper, 17, of the 100 block of Darius Court in Camelot, was a rising senior at Deep Creek High School.
White lives across the street from the home where the stabbings occurred, in the 3200 block of Bruno Drive.
He is being held in the Chesapeake Jail without bond; he is scheduled to appear Monday in juvenile court.
The wounded were a 17-year-old boy, his twin sister, and their 13-year-old sister, all of whom lived in the house.
It is not clear from police reports which girls were sexually assaulted.
The family is not identified in this story because The Virginian-Pilot does not name victims of sexual assaults. All three siblings were taken to Chesapeake General
Hospital, where they were treated and released, a hospital spokeswoman said. Harper was pronounced dead at the scene.
The girls had planned the slumber party as a back-to-school get-together.
Police offered this version of what happened:
White allegedly broke into the house about 4 a.m. through a rear window. He was armed with a kitchen knife when he approached two girls watching television in a downstairs den, ordered them to take off their clothes and told them he was going to rape them. It is unclear in what order the sexual assaults and stabbings occurred.
A teenage boy who had been sleeping upstairs came down, and the intruder stabbed him. White went upstairs, where two girls were sleeping. He stabbed one, police said; the other escaped unharmed.
Afterward, police said, White went back across the street to his house, apparently making enough noise to awaken family members. The middle child, he lives with his parents, older sister and younger brother.
Police arrested White within minutes of the attack. He has declined to be interviewed.
The father of the estranged girlfriend and the two other injured teens was not home at the time of the attack. Neighbors said he is a single parent.
One neighbor, Jay B. Carmack, 18, said White recently learned thirdhand from a friend that his girlfriend planned to break up with him. ``She was scared to tell him,'' Carmack said.
He spoke highly of Michelle Harper, the girl who died: ``She was sweet, too. She a cool person. Everybody got along with her. She was very smart, intelligent. She just had a good head on her shoulders.''
By midmorning Friday, neighbors stood in the doors and yards of neatly kept ranch homes, stunned. Camelot is a quiet, middle-class subdivision with street names such as Guenevere, Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot, from the tales of King Arthur.
Another neighbor, Jean Brown, said her daughter was awakened by the stabbing victims, who ran across the street to the house.
Brown said she was so unnerved, ``I had the phone in my hand but I couldn't even think of 911.'' Brown gave her daughter the phone.
Paramedics arrived and treated the bleeding victims on the doorstep of Brown's house. Hours later, Brown was still shaken.
``I just don't understand it,'' she said. ``One person messes up all these lives. It's just terrible. . . . I'm thankful my kids are grown up.''
Monica Beckett, 19, who lives three blocks away and knows the teenagers at the party, said she could not believe the crimes that White is accused of committing.
``I can't see Curtis doing anything like that,'' she said. ``He's quiet. He kept to himself.''
White graduated from Deep Creek High in 1995 and works at a nearby Food Lion stocking shelves and bagging groceries, she said. Beckett said she remembers seeing White and his girlfriend traveling to school together last year.
``I didn't know they had a violent relationship,'' she said. ``That's not Curtis. . . . I'm thinking maybe those two were fighting and somebody tried to break it up. I don't think he went over there with any intentions to kill anybody.''
Alicia Parker, 19, who lives in the neighborhood, agreed that the crimes seem completely out of character for White.
``I know Curtis very well, and this is not like him,'' she said. ``They seemed like a typical couple to me. I've never seen any signs that it was an abusive relationship or anything of that nature.''
Another neighbor, who did not want to be named, said White was ``polite and respectful and didn't cause any disturbance whatsoever.''
Jerry Lee Artis, 43, who lives up the street from where the stabbings occurred, was thankful that his 16-year-old daughter hadn't been home that night because she might have been a victim, too. She was close friends with those who were there.
As it was, his daughter paged him when a friend told her about the violence. `` `Daddy, something happened in Camelot,' '' she told him.
Artis said he has watched White grow up and never considered him a troublemaker. ``He worked and went to school,'' he said.
Artis' daughter ShaVon, 16, said she couldn't help but think about how different her morning could have been.
``That could have been me there,'' she said. ``The thought that keeps going through my mind is, `What could I have done if I was there?''
She said White's girlfriend was her best friend. White and his girlfriend had been together for about four years, she said.
``When I heard this, I was shocked,'' Artis' daughter said. ``I knew (her friend) and Curtis were having problems, but something else must have been going on since the last time I talked to her.''
She said she had talked with her girlfriend just two or three days before. ``She said she just didn't see the relationship (with White) working out,'' she said. ``I don't know if she was trying to break up with him or what. I don't have a clue what made the situation turn out this bad.''
The two girls had agreed to talk again soon but had not had time.
``Recently, I think Curtis was more into the relationship,'' the 16-year-old said. ``I think maybe (she) was trying to end it. If it hadn't gotten to that point, I think it was leading up to that.''
On Friday, community leaders called to arrange counseling for children affected by the attack and killing.
Bands of news reporters roamed the narrow street all day. Huge satellite trucks parked near the two homes on Bruno Drive. One freelance team of a reporter and cameramen shot footage for a New York City morning program. Reports of the attack were broadcast throughout the day on Cable News Network.
Throughout the day, community leaders in the sprawling development visited the victims' homes, went to Chesapeake General Hospital to talk with the injured, and offered help in any way possible.
Neighbors are banding together to help the Harper family with funeral expenses, said Nettie Bailey, a neighborhood leader who knew the local teen-ager through Bailey's Camelot Youth Movement.
Friends and neighbors offered different explanations of whether White and his girlfriend had just broken up, or were about to. Bailey said the girlfriend had dated White for four years and had recently broken off with him.
``I've cried many tears,'' said Bailey, ``and it's not just our community, it's all over.'' MEMO: Staff writers Mac Daniel, Meredith Cohn and Elizabeth Thiel
contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Photos
The Victim: Michelle Harper, 17
The Suspect: Curtis Lee White, 19
Staff map by VP
Area shown: Bruno drive site of attack
KEYWORDS: ATTACK STABBING MURDER JUVENILE TEENAGER
RAPE SEX CRIME by CNB