
DATE: Thursday, August 7, 1997              TAG: 9708070484

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   82 lines

DRIVER'S INTERVIEW KEY TO DRIVE-BY KILLING TRIAL

The teen-age girl who was driving when 17-year-old Timothy M. Wheaton was killed in a drive-by shooting six months ago said repeatedly after her arrest that the shooting was an unplanned, sudden act of violence by a passenger in the car, James W. Waters Jr.

But toward the end of her 90-minute videotaped interview with a police investigator last Jan. 27, Monica Oliver admitted that she and 18-year-old Richard Ethan Hollingsworth ``had an idea'' that Waters was going to shoot somebody on the night Wheaton was killed.

The contradictory statements were played during the second day of Hollingsworth's first-degree murder trial, which is being heard by Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe without a jury. Waters and Oliver will be tried together on the same charge Aug. 27.

The ambiguous videotape could be key in both trials. Attorneys for Hollingsworth and Oliver will try to show that their clients had no knowledge beforehand that Waters intended to use his gun to seek revenge against rival gang members on the night Wheaton was killed.

Lowe will decide today if the tape will be admitted into evidence in Hollingsworth's trial.

Oliver, who refused to answer questions when called to the stand on Tuesday, said six months ago in the taped interview that the intended target on Jan. 25 was another teen-ager in the Landstown Lakes subdivision where Wheaton was killed. Waters was seeking revenge against the teen because of his involvement in a gang-related fight several days earlier.

Waters, she said, mistook Wheaton for the intended victim when Oliver, Waters and Hollingsworth drove by Wheaton and two of his friends in the 3000 block of Barberry Lane.

As Oliver slowed the car and backed up slightly, Waters leaned out the passenger window and demanded to know Wheaton's identity. When Wheaton denied being the person who Waters was searching for, Waters stuck his .22 caliber handgun out of the car window and quickly shot Wheaton, Oliver said.

``I didn't know he was going to shoot,'' Oliver said during the videotaped interview. ``I didn't know he was going to shoot this dude. Neither did Ethan.''

Wheaton ran from the scene of the shooting, collapsed in a parking lot and later was pronounced dead at the scene.

``If I knew he was going to shoot this guy, I wouldn't be driving,'' Oliver said. ``I'm not dumb.''

Toward the end of the interview, however, following repeated interrogation by police, Oliver said Waters had told her and Hollingsworth he was going to kill the teen who had beaten up his friend.

``But we didn't think that he was going to kill the guy that we drove up to, because we, me and Ethan, both thought . . . he told us his name was Tim.

Oliver said she was shaking and could not move after Waters fired the shot. She wanted to jump out of the car, she said, but was too frightened of Waters.

After leaving the subdivision, the three teens drove to several stores later that night and went on a shopping spree using Hollingsworth's father's credit cards.

The teens then picked up Hollingsworth's girlfriend, 17-year-old Stephanie Grace Wall, and headed for a vacation cottage owned by Hollingsworth's grandparents in Long Beach, N.C.

They were arrested at the cottage by North Carolina police on Jan. 26 and returned to Virginia the next day.

Wall was convicted in juvenile court in March of accessory after the fact and pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the earlier drive-by shooting on Jan. 25.

The two teen-agers who were with Wheaton when he was killed testified Wednesday that they saw Waters fire the fatal bullet at their friend.

Daniel J. Reese, 15, said that Waters first spoke to him when the car pulled to a stop in front of the three teens. But he soon turned his attention to Wheaton.

``He said, `If you are f------ lying to me, I will kill you,' '' Reese testified.

Moments later, Waters fired the gun, Reese said.

Reese said Waters and someone else in the car ``started laughing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

The first-degree murder trial of Richard Ethan Hollingsworth, 18, is

being heard without a jury. Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe is

presiding. Later this month, two others will face trial in the

drive-by shooting death of Timothy M. Wheaton, 17, in January. KEYWORDS: MURDER DRIVE-BY-SHOOTING JUVENILE TRIAL