DATE: Tuesday, November 18, 1997            TAG: 9711180283

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   96 lines

CARTER, 15, GETS 18 YEARS FOR KILLING HALF-SISTER SENTENCE 1ST FOR BEACH UNDER NEW JUVENILE LAW.

Fifteen-year-old Zackary Anthony Carter was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Monday for using a shotgun to kill his 8-year-old half-sister in a bedroom of their Ocean Lakes home last year.

Carter is the first juvenile to be sentenced for murder in Virginia Beach under a new, tougher juvenile crime law that took effect in July 1996, just two months before Cierra Rose Carter was killed.

He must serve 85 percent of that sentence, or at least 15 years, before he will be eligible for release from prison.

Circuit Judge Frederick B. Lowe called the sentencing a ``sad occasion not only for the defendant in the case but also for all of his friends and family members whose lives were intertwined in this tragic situation.''

Carter, dressed in a jail-orange jumpsuit, showed no emotion as Lowe read the sentence, and he was immediately led out of the courtroom by sheriff's deputies.

Lowe could have sentenced Carter to a maximum of 43 years in prison. A jury on Aug. 18 convicted Carter of second-degree murder and a weapons charge. Lowe gave Carter 15 years for murder and three years for the weapons conviction.

Still, the sentence disappointed Carter's attorneys and supporters, who were hoping Lowe would use a loophole in the new juvenile law to keep Carter from going to jail.

Although the new 1996 juvenile law requires that violent juveniles be automatically treated as adults, the trial judge has the option of suspending any adult sentence and treating the defendant as a juvenile.

Melinda Glaubke, one of Carter's two attorneys, complained that Lowe was caving in to political forces that have dissolved the line that used to protect juveniles from the harsh realities of adult punishment.

``I think it says something about the whole society and the state of Virginia that (Lowe) would not consider a juvenile sentence,'' complained Glaubke after the hearing. ``We have given up on kids.''

Furthermore, Glaubke said, Carter did not deserve to be convicted of murder.

``We have maintained from Day One that it was an accident,'' Glaubke said. ``We were disappointed by the verdict and we are disappointed by the sentence.''

If Carter had been sentenced as a juvenile, he could have been detained only until age 21.

Monday ended the second of two murder trials in the Carter case. The first trial ended in a mistrial on June 5 when a juror made improper contact with a private attorney not connected to the case to ask questions about the murder trial. Lowe was judge in both trials.

Evidence during both trials showed that Carter used his father's 20-gauge shotgun on Sept. 10, 1996, to shoot his half-sister once in the head while the two children were home alone. Carter was 14 at the time.

Authorities searched for Carter for about 24 hours after the shooting. They found him wandering on a street about a block from his home.

Prosecutors believe he committed the crime out of a twisted sibling rivalry turned pathological. Carter testified during both trials that he shot his half-sister accidentally while playing with his father's shotgun.

On Monday, Carter's attorneys tried to show that their client was a normal teen-ager from a good, loving family. They presented photographs of holiday gatherings and testimony from family members, teachers and friends, many of whom knew Carter when he was living with his biological mother in western Virginia.

Before his sister was killed, Carter had never experienced any serious trouble with the law or in school.

``This is not a monster, not a danger or threat to society,'' Glaubke said. ``If Anthony were a threat to society, there would be some incidents that occurred previously.''

But prosecutors claimed that Carter manipulated people by changing his behavior to suit the circumstances. They also said he never showed any remorse for killing his sister.

``This is not a sweet young boy, not a student,'' said prosecutor Bob Dautrich. ``This is a murderer.''

Dautrich said Carter proved that the killing was no accident by his behavior immediately following the shooting.

``He proceeded to try to clean up the blood, clean up the mess,'' Dautrich said. ``So people would not know what he had done.''

The brutal killing and ordeal of two trials tore the Carter family in two. During Monday's hearing, family members sat in two groups in the courtroom, based on their loyalties: Those who wanted a stiff sentence sat on one side; those who wanted leniency sat on the other.

Afterward, Carter's biological mother, Rebecca Kearns, left the courtroom in tears and complained that the sentence did not fit the facts of the crime.

``I believe this was an accident,'' Kearns said. ``I don't believe he did it on purpose. Anything he did after the (killing) he did out of fear.''

A Department of Corrections official said Monday that Carter will be taken to Southampton Correctional Center for classification. Officials will decide whether to send him to a prison that has a segregated unit for juveniles or to a prison that has no accommodation for juveniles. If he is sent to the latter, he will be placed in protective custody, separated from other inmates.

MEMO: Staff writer Laura LaFay contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

Zackary Carter

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu