THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701110274
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 62 lines
A 17-year-old has been convicted of eight crimes in connection with the torching of Windsor Oaks Elementary School in May.
Brodie Brown, one of four teens charged in the fires, was sentenced Thursday to indefinite juvenile detention and ordered to pay up to $50,000 in restitution.
He pleaded guilty in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to two charges of arson, two charges of conspiracy and three charges of breaking and entering.
Judge Woodrow Lewis also convicted Brown of petty larceny related to the fires. He had pleaded not guilty to a grand larceny charge.
Brown was taken to the Tidewater Detention Home after the hearing. He eventually will be transferred to another juvenile facility, where he could be kept until his 21st birthday.
The fires at Windsor Oaks occurred May 12 and 25, destroying the school's portable classrooms and causing $165,000 in damage.
They came at a time when public awareness of school arson was at a peak. At least three other schools had been partially burned in Virginia Beach.
The Windsor Oaks fires were unsolved until investigators interviewed three of the boys at their homes June 4. Although each initially denied any involvement, they all broke down during interrogations.
All four juveniles arrested were students at Princess Anne High School. In addition to Brown, police arrested Robert Laramay, 17, Alan Ferrara, 16, and Brian Bell, 15.
Bell's charges were transferred to Circuit Court Sept. 26 by Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr. The judge also ordered the others to be tried as adults.
On appeal, Circuit Court Judge John K. Moore returned the cases of Laramay, Brown and Ferrara to juvenile court. But Judge A. Bonwill Shockley, who heard Bell's appeal, refused to do the same for Bell.
Bell pleaded guilty in November to nine felonies: three counts of burglary, three counts of arson, two counts of conspiracy and one count of grand larceny. Bell is scheduled to be sentenced by Shockley on Jan. 22.
Bell could receive a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison if he's sentenced as an adult. But the judge could still sentence him as a juvenile. If so, the maximum sentence would be the same as Brown's: confinement to a juvenile correctional center until age 21.
In addition to arson, Laramay pleaded guilty to two counts of breaking and entering, one count of grand larceny and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony.
Laramay was sentenced in November to the same term of detention as Brown and was ordered to pay $25,000 to help cover losses incurred by the school in the fires.
Ferrara is scheduled to be tried in juvenile court on Jan. 22.
Brown's attorney, Jeff Stredler, said Brown's sentence was as good as could be expected, and expressed gratitude that Brown was treated as a juvenile.
``In the overall scheme of things, we were pleased that the Circuit Court sent the case back down to juvenile court for disposition,'' Stredler said. ``From our standpoint, that was one of the biggest issues in the case.''
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE ARSON VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS CONVICTION