DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050622

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   69 lines

17-YEAR-OLD WILL BE TRIED IN FATAL SHOOTING OF TEEN JUVENILE COURT JUDGE FINDS CAUSE FOR THE TRIAL IN JULY 5 SLAYING.

``Dirt'' was only trying to scare ``June Bug'' when he allegedly fired a gun into June Bug's Lincoln Park home just after 1 a.m. July 5, the witness testified.

But the consequences were deadly.

Now Dirt - 17-year-old Alvin D. Ervin's nickname - is charged in the slaying of Carl A. ``June Bug'' Goodman, 19, who was standing in a darkened window when Ervin allegedly fired the fatal shot.

The two were supposedly acquaintances, but their exact relationship was unclear.

After weighing the testimony of witnesses, Juvenile Court Judge Alotha Willis on Wednesday found probable cause to send Ervin's case to the grand jury for trial in Circuit Court. Goodman lived in the 2500 block of Graham St. No trial date has been set for Ervin, who lives in the 1100 block of South St.

Goodman's cousin, Calvin Brown Jr., 18, testified that one of his legs ``got grazed'' by another bullet allegedly fired by Ervin while he was standing on Goodman's porch at about 1 a.m. July 5. Brown was not seriously injured.

A next-door neighbor, Mattie Law, testified that at about 1 a.m. a bullet crashed into one of her second-story windows. Several children were sleeping on the second floor.

She then heard from next door the cries of, ``Oh, my God! Oh, my God!'' Goodman's mother, Barbara, came to the neighbor's door to use the phone and call 911, she said.

Rita Boone, Goodman's girlfriend, said Goodman had just returned from an errand and had talked with her in the dark upstairs bedroom ``for six minutes'' when both heard shots.

She said Goodman went to the window to investigate and immediately fell down after another bulletflew into the room.

``Blood was coming from his head,'' Boone said.

Perhaps the most telling testimony came from George Killebrew, 15, a friend of Ervin's who knew the accused by his nickname, ``Dirt.''

Killebrew said he left a party at about midnight with Ervin, who had been drinking. ``Dirt had a gun,'' he said, adding he did not know what kind of gun.

Both teens lay on the ground near Lincoln Park. Killebrew said Ervin pulled out the gun and gripped it, with outstretched arms, as if firing the weapon.

``He said he was going to shoot in the house to scare June Bug,'' Killebrew said.

He said he tried to talk Ervin out of doing so, then left the scene in the opposite direction of Ervin, whom Killebrew said tramped off toward Goodman's house.

Then Killebrew heard gunfire.

Killebrew said he saw Ervin after the shooting but Ervin told him he didn't shoot Goodman. Then Killebrew walked home.

Pressed by defense attorney Warren D. Kozak, Killebrew said he didn't see Dirt pull the trigger.

Asked if he could tell the difference between the sound of gunfire and fireworks, Killebrew said, ``I live in the projects, so I know gunshots.''

The incident took place July 5.

Ervin did not testify, but Kozak told the judge there was little evidence to connect his client with the death. ``You can't get from Point A to Point B'' based on the testimony, Kozak said. ``You heard yourself that shots are heard all the time in the projects.''

Besides, he argued, there was a large blue house blocking Killebrew's view of whatever events occurred at Goodman's house.

Ervin could be indicted for murder, two counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling and two firearms charges. Charges of aggravated malicious wounding and two additional firearms charges were dismissed. KEYWORDS: MURDER HEARING SHOOTING

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