
DATE: Thursday, October 9, 1997             TAG: 9710090508

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  151 lines

TEEN'S PLOT IS BEHIND SLAYING NOW IN JAIL, SHE FEELS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHEATON'S SHOOTING DEATH

Stephanie Grace Wall says she is to blame for setting in motion a tragic series of events that left one teen-ager dead and ruined the lives of four others, including her own.

When asked if she felt responsible for the fatal drive-by shooting of 17-year-old Timothy M. Wheaton last January, she said ``Yeah, I do.''

It is an irony not lost on Wall that the person who initiated the events leading to the slaying is the one getting the least severe punishment. She was convicted as a juvenile and will be freed by her 21st birthday. Her three co-defendants were convicted as adults. Two could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Wall spoke of her role in the case during an interview last week at the Virginia Beach City Jail as she waited to be called as a witness in the joint murder trial of two of her co-defendants, James W. Waters Jr. and Monica Oliver, which ended Tuesday.

``I guess I just got it started,'' she said. ``If James had not wanted to do something for me, it would not have happened.

``As for Tim, I think it should have been me instead of him. I have read about him since it happened. He was the perfect kid who every parent wants and every kid wants as a friend. And here I am. I just don't have too much going for me and I am still alive. It's just not right.''

Wall recruited Waters, a former boyfriend and convicted felon with a reputation for gunplay and toughness, to help her in a revenge plot.

Then she arranged for her boyfriend at the time, Richard Ethan Hollingsworth, and her girlfriend, Monica Oliver, to provide Waters with transportation.

Wall wanted them to hunt down the teen-ager who had disrespected her and punched out Hollingsworth.

``I asked (Waters) to scare him or beat (him),'' Wall said. ``I didn't say anything about killing him.''

Wall's manipulation and teen-age intrigue led first to gunfire in the Magic Hollow section of Virginia Beach, where no one was injured, then to the murder of Wheaton in the Virginia Beach subdivision of Landstown Meadows.

By the early evening of Jan. 25, Wheaton, a Kellam High School soccer star, lay dead in the street, shot once in the chest by Waters. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Wheaton was not the youth Waters sought.

Then, 24 hours later, Wall, Waters, Hollingsworth and Oliver, 17, were under arrest. All were initially charged with Wheaton's murder and the shooting in Magic Hollow.

Now, everybody but Wall has been convicted as adults: Waters and Hollingsworth of first-degree murder and attempted malicious wounding; Oliver of voluntary manslaughter and attempted malicious wounding. A jury recommended a life sentence for Waters. The three are awaiting formal sentencing. Hollingsworth could get life, Oliver as much as 23 years.

Wall, who was 17 when the crime occurred, escaped relatively unscathed. By her 21st birthday, her three convictions - accessory after the fact, attempted malicious wounding and conspiracy to commit malicious wounding - will disappear from her record.

Wall was not called to testify in this week's trial. Nor was she called as a witness during Hollingsworth's trial in August. Hollingsworth, whose scheduled sentencing Wednesday was delayed, will be sentenced Oct. 22.

Of those charged with the slaying of Wheaton, it was Hollingsworth, Wall believes, who ``got screwed over the worst.''

``He was the best educated,'' said Wall, who is being held at Bon Air, a state juvenile facility for girls near Richmond. ``He was doing the best, the most successful. . . He had it all. But he doesn't have it anymore. . . If his parents blame me, I understand exactly where they are coming from. . . .I guess I kind of corrupted him a little. Or a lot.

``I don't think he is going to make it,'' Wall said of Hollingsworth. ``I don't think he is strong enough to make it. He has given up. He doesn't care what happens to him. That makes me sad.''

Wall said she has been in and out of trouble since she was 11, when she began running away from home. At 16, she says, she was living in an Ocean View crack house, sampling all kinds of drugs and providing sex to anyone who asked.

``I'm not proud of anything I've done,'' Wall said. ``It's not the kind of lifestyle that a girl should have.''

But her street smarts and cunning came in handy when she recruited the teens responsible for Wheaton's murder.

Waters, she said, ``understands how I feel. He didn't like to see me upset. James cares about me a lot.''

She said that is one of the reasons she turned to Waters to help in her revenge scheme, she said. But there were others.

``This doesn't sound very nice, but of all my friends and associates, James has the least sense,'' Wall said. ``Besides, James has been in trouble a million times over other things and one more thing would not make any difference.''

Waters' tough reputation also entered into her calculation, Wall said.

Eliciting the help of Hollingsworth and Oliver was just as easy, Wall admitted.

Hollingsworth, she said ``is very naive and there are a lot of things that he doesn't understand.''

Oliver, Wall said, was a good friend who Wall had helped become part of her circle of friends.

But when her planning ended in murder, Wall tried to take the blame, she said. In North Carolina, where the teen-agers were arrested, Wall told authorities she shot Wheaton.

``That is why I took the blame initially,'' Wall said. ``I didn't want James to get in trouble.''

Eventually, though, Wall and Oliver told authorities that Waters fired the shot that killed Wheaton.

Wall had a tough start at Bon Air, she said. Twice she tried to commit suicide.

Now, however, she is training to be a plumber. Recently she has won several performance awards.

``By letting me stay in juvenile detention, they basically are giving me a chance to start over,'' Wall said.

It's a chance that many people probably don't think she deserves, Wall said.

``I don't care what people say,'' she explained. ``That I'm a little manipulator. That I'm promiscuous. Any person who judges me is an ignorant person. . . I know I have to live with pain. I know in my heart it should have been me instead of (Wheaton). It's not fair. I know.

``But I'm not going to sink in my own sorrow. A lot of people would like to see me dead. I would like to see me dead. But I'm getting healthy again. I'm learning self-respect and self-esteem.''

ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

James W. Waters Jr.

STAFF/File photo

Waters was convicted of first-

degree murder and attempted malicious

wounding. A jury recommended

a life sentence.

Ethan Hollingsworth

STAFF/File photo

Hollingsworth was also convicted

of first-degree murder and

attempted malicious wounding. He will