THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130554
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 69 lines
A 14-year-old boy accused of killing his half-sister with a shotgun on Tuesday has become the first juvenile in Virginia Beach, and apparently the first in South Hampton Roads, charged under the state's new juvenile reform act.
The law, which went into effect July 1, means that juveniles as young as 14 are automatically tried as adults for serious crimes such as murder.
Zackary Anthony Carter, a Princess Anne Middle School student, is charged with first-degree murder and faces a possible life sentence if convicted. He was arraigned in juvenile court on Thursday.
His next appearance in juvenile court - on Oct. 1 for a preliminary hearing - will likely be his last in that court. If probable cause to try him is found at that hearing, the case will be automatically certified for trial in Circuit Court, where Carter will be treated as an adult, said Afshin Farashahi, assistant commonwealth's attorney in Virginia Beach.
Farashahi said that before July 1, a hearing would have been held to determine if Carter's case would be transferred to Circuit Court. If the case was not transferred, Carter would have been tried in juvenile court, where penalties are much less severe.
Farashahi said Carter is the first juvenile in Virginia Beach to be charged under the new reform act, and there apparently have been no charges brought under the law in other South Hampton Roads cities.
Carter is suspected of shooting his half-sister, 8-year-old Cierra Rose Carter, in an upstairs bedroom of their family residence in the 800 block of Ringfield Road in the Ocean Lakes subdivision. Cierra Carter was a fourth-grader at Strawbridge Elementary School.
The shooting occurred between 4 p.m., when they arrived home from school, and about 6 p.m., when Cierra's mother, Traci Carter, returned home from work.
Traci Carter, according to police, saw her stepson leaving the home as she arrived, and moments later discovered her daughter in an upstairs bathroom.
Carter, who is known by his middle name of Anthony, was missing for about 22 hours. He remained at large despite an extensive search organized by police that included a helicopter and K-9 units.
He was picked up by police on a street near his home at about 4 p.m. Wednesday. Police said he had been hiding in a makeshift shelter in nearby woods.
Virginia Beach Police investigators questioned him that evening, and he was charged with first-degree murder at about 8 p.m.
Police said they had yet to determine a motive.
Thursday morning, Carter, looking thin and frail but clean-cut in his jailhouse orange jumpsuit, hobbled into juvenile court with shackles on his legs.
He sat quietly as Juvenile Court Judge J. Davis Reed III ordered that he be held in the Tidewater Detention Home until his October hearing.
Carter had no questions for Judge Reed. But his father, Zachery Carter, had a request for his son, who began living in Virginia Beach last spring after moving to Hampton Roads from Staunton, Va., where he had lived with his mother.
``His mother in Staunton would love for him to phone, collect, or in some way, so that she could speak to him,'' Carter told the judge. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Vicki Cronis\The Virginian-Pilot
Left, Zackary Anthony Carter is led out of court after being
arraigned Thursday.
Color photo
Cierra Rose Carter
KEYWORDS: MURDER JUVENILE SHOOTING FIREARMS TEENAGER
FATALITY by CNB