
DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070297

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  116 lines

DEFENDANT ADMITS DRIVE-BY SLAYING BUT JAMES W. WATERS JR. SAYS BEACH SLAYING OF KELLAM STUDENT WAS ``PURE ACCIDENT.'' ``SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED AT ALL,'' HE SAYS IN TURNAROUND

In a dramatic turnaround, James W. Waters Jr. admitted to jurors Monday what four witnesses had told them: He was the trigger man last January when Kellam High School student Timothy M. Wheaton was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.

But Waters, 19, took only partial blame. He claimed that the shooting, which occurred early on the evening of Jan. 25 on Barberry Lane in Landstown Meadows, was ``pure accident.''

Waters said he didn't mean to hurt Wheaton when he fired a single shot from a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun. The bullet struck Wheaton, a 17-year-old soccer star, in the chest.

``I just touched the trigger and it went off,'' Waters said during two hours of testimony in Circuit Court. ``Timothy was right in the way. I didn't mean to shoot him. It was pure accident.

``I want Timothy Wheaton's parents to know it wasn't meant to happen. . . . It should never have happened at all.''

Moments later, Waters' attorney rested his defense in the first-degree murder trial. Also on trial is 17-year-old Monica Oliver, who drove the car on the night Wheaton was killed.

Both Waters and Oliver face possible life sentences if convicted. Jury deliberations are scheduled to begin today.

Convicted earlier of first-degree murder was Richard Ethan Hollingsworth, 19. He was tried in August and is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Waters' confession Monday was an about-face from the story with which he started the trial six days ago.

In opening statements last week, Waters' attorney, Arthur C. Ermlich Jr., said Waters was not the shooter when Wheaton was killed. He said the shooter was Hollingsworth, who had testified at his own trial in August that he was just a passive observer in the back seat of the car.

Hollingsworth told the same story in testimony last week in Waters' trial.

Waters' denial was a long-shot strategy with little hope of success. Four witnesses - the two teen-agers who were with Wheaton when he was shot, plus Oliver and Hollingsworth - had named Waters as the trigger man.

On Monday, though, Waters said he changed his story for emotional reasons.

Waters said he lied for 10 months about how Wheaton died because he feared rejection by his mother and father. But Waters said he had a heart-to-heart talk Saturday with his father, who promised to remain loyal to his son.

``He told me he didn't care what happened, either way he would stick by me,'' Waters testified Monday. ``I thought my parents would abandon me.''

Waters said he kept ``everything from everybody'' because ``I was afraid. I wouldn't trust nobody or anything.''

Much of the story that Waters told Monday was similar to other versions that Oliver and Hollingsworth have told.

Wheaton was an innocent who happened to be at the wrong place when Waters, a felon with multiple convictions, went seeking revenge for the beating of a friend.

When Waters saw Wheaton and his two friends walking along the street, he ordered Oliver to stop the car, and Waters began questioning them. Eventually the conversation turned heated and Waters began pointing the gun and accusing Wheaton of being the youth for whom he was searching.

Moments later, Wheaton was shot. He ran about 40 feet before collapsing in the street. He died at the scene.

But Waters' story also differed in an important way. He claimed that it was Hollingsworth who fired the gun in an earlier drive-by shooting Jan. 25. That shooting, in which no one was injured, also was revenge-motivated, Waters said. The target was a youth who earlier that day had assaulted Hollingsworth.

The first shooting occurred in the Magic Hollow section of Virginia Beach. Hollingsworth, who was 18 in January, testified during his trial that Waters fired the gun during the Magic Hollow shooting.

At the trial Monday, Oliver also testified for almost four hours in the morning. She told jurors that the Wheaton shooting caught her by surprise.

``All of the sudden I just heard this pop,'' Oliver said. ``And I saw all of them run. And I said, `Oh, my God, did you shoot them?' ''

Waters, Oliver and Hollingsworth drove off after the shooting. The three, along with Stephanie Grace Wall, 17, were arrested the next day in Long Beach, N.C. All were returned to Virginia for trial.

Wall, who is now 18, was convicted in juvenile court earlier this year of lesser charges associated with the Wheaton shooting and the shooting in Magic Hollow. She is being held in the state juvenile system and may not be released until her 21st birthday. ILLUSTRATION: [Color photos]

NHAT MEYER photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Monica Oliver, 17

Oliver said, ``All of the sudden I just heard this pop. And I saw

all of them run. And I said, `Oh, my God, did you shoot them?' ''

James W. Waters Jr., 19

Waters said he lied for 10 months about how Timothy Wheaton died

because he feared rejection by his parents. But Waters said he had a

heart-to-heart talk Saturday with his father, who promised to remain

loyal to him. ``He told me he didn't care what happened, either way

he would stick by me.''

Graphic

[with photos]