ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990                   TAG: 9006270396
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE: BOY, 16, COULD GET CHAIR IF FOUND GUILTY

Exactly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 16-year-olds could be executed, a judge said a teen-ager accused of murdering three members of a Henrico County family is eligible for the death penalty.

Commonwealth's Attorney James Gilmore said he will try to send Steven Rea, 16, to the electric chair.

Rea could be sentenced to death if he is convicted of capital murder in the shootings of Larry Walker; his wife, Emily; and their 17-year-old son, Eddie, Henrico County Circuit Judge James Kulp ruled Tuesday.

Prosecutors cited last year's 5-4 Supreme Court decision on a Kentucky case that 16- and 17-year-olds could be executed. The court had previously ruled that youths 15 and younger were not eligible for the death penalty.

Rea's attorneys argued that no national or state consensus has been determined on the death penalty for 16-year-olds. They said the General Assembly has not tackled the issue.

"It's at least an open question or we wouldn't be arguing here today," said Craig Cooley, one of Rea's lawyers.

But Kulp said the Supreme Court's ruling made Rea eligible for execution. He also said the General Assembly dealt with the issue of executing teen-agers in January, when the House of Delegates rejected a bill to prohibit the death penalty for anyone under 18.

"The legislature of Virginia has spoken to this issue, that the death penalty for a 16-year-old is not against the law," Kulp said.

The Walkers were slain in the early morning hours of March 25. Their bodies were discovered a day later. Six days after the killings, Rea, Christopher Palmer, 16, and Jackie Lynn Kulp, 14, were arrested as they slept in Eddie Walker's car at a Goochland County boat ramp. All three are charged with murder. 


 by CNB