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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 7, 1993                   TAG: 9312070139
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mike Hudson
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MAN INDICTED IN GIRL'S KILLING

A Botetourt County grand jury indicted William R. Layne on Monday on capital murder and kidnapping charges in the death of 11-year-old Phadra Carter.

A jury trial has been set for Feb. 28 through March 4. It is the first capital murder case in Botetourt County in a decade.

Authorities claim that Layne kidnapped Phadra from her home in Rockbridge County early on Sept. 18 because he wanted to sexually abuse her.

Searchers found her body four days later in a shallow grave in the Flatwoods section of Botetourt. She had been killed by 10 blows to the head, according to the autopsy report.

At last month's preliminary hearing, lab experts testified that they had found human blood in the passenger section of Layne's station wagon, along with Phadra's thumbprints on the front passenger window of the vehicle.

by CNB