DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230509

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   49 lines

TEEN GETS LIFE IN PRISON IN FATAL BEACH SHOOTING

James W. Waters Jr. was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison by a judge who called him ``an extremely dangerous individual who clearly needs to be removed from society.''

Circuit Judge Thomas S. Shadrick affirmed the sentence - life plus 28 years - recommended earlier this month by a jury that found Waters, 19, guilty of first-degree murder in the drive-by shooting death of 17-year-old Timothy M. Wheaton. Shadrick listened to pleas from Waters' attorney that the court reduce the sentence because of Waters' troubled background, home life and mental problems.

``It is almost that he was destined to end up in a terrible situation,'' said Arthur C. Ermlich Jr. on Wednesday. Ermlich represented Waters during his seven-day trial that concluded Oct. 7.

Shadrick admitted that society needs to address the underlying problems that are producing a large number of young people who, like Waters, ``come before this court, your age, with similar backgrounds and similar problems, capable of doing what you did.''

But equally important, Shadrick said, is that the court send a message to young people that ``regardless of their background and personal problems, they are responsible for their actions.''

Waters was convicted of shooting Wheaton, a Kellam High School soccer star, once in the chest on the evening of Jan. 25 in the neighborhood of Landstown Meadows. In the car with Waters were 17-year-old Monica Oliver and 18-year-old Richard Ethan Hollingsworth.

The three teens were seeking revenge for two teen-age fights when they happened upon Wheaton and two of his friends walking along the street. Waters fired his gun when he mistook Wheaton for a youth who had beaten up one of Waters' friends. Wheaton ran about 40 feet, collapsed and died.

Waters and his two accomplices drove from the scene and were arrested at a beach cottage in Long Beach, N.C., the next day. Also arrested was 17-year-old Stephanie Grace Wall.

Oliver was tried with Waters. She was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and will be sentenced Dec. 15.

Hollingsworth was convicted of first-degree murder in August. He will be sentenced Wednesday. He faces a possible life sentence.

Wall was sentenced as a juvenile. She is at Bon Air, a juvenile facility near Richmond. She could be held by the state until her 21st birthday. ILLUSTRATION: James W. Waters Jr., above, got life plus 28 years in

the drive-by shooting death of 17-year-old Timothy M. Wheaton. KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SENTENCING

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