DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020497

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   45 lines

2 EYEWITNESSES DESCRIBE FATAL SHOOTING OF WHEATON

Eyewitnesses to the shooting death of Timothy M. Wheaton testified about the Kellam High School soccer star's murder on Wednesday during the second day of testimony in the joint murder trial of two teen-agers.

James W. Waters Jr., 19, and Monica Oliver, 17, are both charged with first-degree murder in Wheaton's death, which occurred on Jan. 25 in the Virginia Beach subdivision of Landstown Meadows. Wheaton, 17, was shot once in the chest in a drive-by shooting. After running about 40 feet, he collapsed and died on the street.

Both face possible life terms in prison if convicted.

Already convicted in August of first-degree murder is 19-year-old Richard Ethan Hollingsworth. He will be sentenced Wednesday.

Hollingsworth testified on Tuesday that Waters shot Wheaton while Oliver drove and Hollingsworth sat in the back seat. Hollingsworth testified that the three had done an earlier drive-by shooting, in which no one was injured, in the Magic Hollow section of the city. Waters was also the triggerman in the first shooting, Hollingsworth said.

On Wednesday, the two youths who were with Wheaton when he was killed, Danny Reese and Michael McGinn, testified. They said that an automobile drove past them as they were walking along Barberry Lane in the early evening last January. The car stopped and slowly backed up.

McGinn said the man in the passenger seat began asking them questions about the whereabouts of another youth who lived in the neighborhood. Eventually the man directed his questions at Wheaton. After accusing Wheaton of lying, the person shot Wheaton.

The shooter had facial hair and a goatee similar to the one that Waters wears, McGinn said.

Testimony in the case will continue today. The trial is expected to last through Friday. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Monica Oliver talks with her defense attorney, J. Brian Donnelly.

Eyewitness testimony Wednesday indicated that Timothy Wheaton's

shooter was a male. KEYWORDS: SHOOTING MURDER TRIAL JUVENILE

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