Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 15, 1992 TAG: 9201150295
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ASSAILANT'S PROBATION ANGERS SHOOTING VICTIM
Pulling his lip to the side, 16-year-old Vonkuren Saunders shows how a 9mm bullet extracted a row of his left lower teeth.Saunders, who spent more than a week in the hospital, is upset that the 16-year-old who shot him will not spend a single day in detention.
"I feel terrible about it," Saunders said Tuesday, after the youth - who is not being identified because of his age - was sentenced to probation in Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Saunders said he was shot when he unknowingly tagged along with friends in September to what turned out to be a showdown of high-powered weapons.
Anthony Lamont Kasey, who arranged the confrontation with a 17-year-old who had been dating his girlfriend on the sly, was killed in the shooting - his body riddled with as many as 18 bullets.
While two teen-agers accused of killing Kasey, 19, are awaiting trial as adults, the case of the 16-year-old who wounded Saunders was resolved in juvenile court.
Judge Fred Hoback Jr., who last month reduced a charge of malicious wounding against the youth to unlawful wounding, sentenced him Tuesday to an indefinite term of probation.
Saunders said he went to court expecting to see the 16-year-old - who was 15 at the time of the shooting - get at least as much time behind bars as he had spent in the hospital.
"He shot me. He had a gun and he was underage," Saunders said. "He tried to kill me. . . . I'm not the law, but I disagree with it."
Saunders said a prosecutor was not present during the sentencing hearing, and that no one asked him how he felt about the case.
"They didn't ask me nothing," he said. "They just said, `Let's proceed.' "
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Gardner said she had planned to handle the sentencing, but the case was called without her knowledge while she was trying another case in an adjacent juvenile courtroom.
Saunders said he doesn't blame the prosecutor - "she wanted to really put those guys behind bars" - or the system. "I blame him," he said of the 16-year-old.
But Leroy Moran, the lawyer who represented the 16-year-old, asked that the youth be placed on probation because, in part, it was his first offense.
"Everything indicated that he got locked into a bad situation," Moran said. "The court didn't have a whole lot of options."
Saunders has testified earlier that he was with a friend the night of Sept. 6 when they ran into Kasey, whom he knew only by reputation. "I had heard he wasn't a dude to mess with."
Unknown to Saunders, a zippered bag that Kasey was carrying contained an assault rifle with a clip that could hold up to 40 rounds of ammunition.
Because Saunders and the 16-year-old knew each other from playing basketball, Kasey had Saunders call his beeper to arrange a meeting with the 16-year-old's cousin, with whom Kasey was angry for dating his girlfriend.
Saunders said that when they arrived on Portland Avenue Northwest he spoke to the 16-year-old - only to be greeted seconds later with a volley of gunfire.
The 16-year-old told police that Kasey and several other teens were behind a van when gunfire erupted. "I just heard gunshots, so I started shooting," he told police.
Saunders was hit as he ran back to the car. "I was running for my life," he said.
The bullet entered the back of his neck and took out a row of teeth before exiting through his mouth. Saunders faces additional medical treatment and eventually will have to get false teeth, he said.
Although his wounds are healing, Saunders said he will have a hard time getting over how the case was handled.
"I'll never be able to put this behind me," he said.