Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993 TAG: 9304220225
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Wednesday, an Alleghany County jury sentenced Steven W. Hunter to 21 years in prison for murdering his daughter and wounding her mother.
Hunter, 36, of Covington, claimed the shooting was an accident. The jury deliberated about 3 1/2 hours before convicting him of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and two firearms charges.
Alleghany Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Alderson gave this account of the killing:
Hunter and Renae Jordan, 22, had been living together off and on and had a child together. They broke up last summer. After that, Kwatashia lived with her mother.
Early on Oct. 24, Hunter went to a babysitter's home and took Kwatashia without her mother's permission.
Jordan found out and went looking for Hunter and her daughter, riding in a car driven by Hunter's cousin. About 2 a.m., she spotted Kwatashia walking along Monroe Avenue with her father.
The driver pulled into the parking lot of the Hungry Heifer Restaurant. Jordan, who was in the front passenger seat, opened the door and told Hunter: "Give me the baby."
Hunter handed Kwatashia in to Jordan. But Hunter - who previously had been convicted of assaulting Jordan - stood into the open door so Jordan could not close it. They began arguing over whether Jordan had been seeing another man.
He punched Jordan in the face with his fist. Jordan hit him back in the face. "She said: `I hit him and I hit him hard,'" Alderson said.
Jordan and another witness said Hunter pulled a semiautomatic pistol from his coat pocket and told Hunter he was going to kill her. Then, the witnesses said, Hunter fired a single shot.
The bullet passed through the back of Jordan's left hand and then plunged through Kwatashia's head.
Kwatashia died about 5:30 a.m. as she was being flown by helicopter to Roanoke.
Hunter told police four different versions of what happened, Alderson said. The story that Hunter settled on was that Jordan had kicked him during he scuffle and the gun had fallen out of his pocket. It hit the pavement and went off accidentally, Hunter said.
A state firearms expert testified, however, that the shooting could not have happened that way.
The expert said he tested the gun by repeatedly dropping it on pavement and hitting it with a hammer; it would not discharge accidentally. Also, the expert said, there had been no marks on the gun to indicate it had been dropped the night of the shooting.
Alderson had asked jurors to convict Hunter of first-degree murder. The jury opted for second-degree murder, setting Hunter's sentence at 10 years. It gave Hunter five years for malicious wounding and six more on the two firearms charges.
The prosecutor said it was "good verdict." The case was difficult because the three witnesses who were riding in the car all had criminal records, Alderson said. Two of them have been convicted of crack-cocaine dealing and Jordan had twice been convicted of shoplifting, he said.
Also, "I think there was a lot of sympathy for Steven Hunter. No one thought he intended to kill his child. . . . There was no question that he loved his child."
by CNB