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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995                   TAG: 9506070057
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

JURY DEADLOCKS ON TEEN'S SENTENCE

A jury that convicted a teen-ager of capital murder in the deaths of his grandmother and three other relatives could not agree Tuesday whether to sentence the boy to death.

As a result, Marvin Owens, 16, will receive a life term when he appears Aug. 1 before Circuit Judge Robert B. Cromwell Jr. for sentencing.

Owens' mother, Wanda Williams, said she was relieved at the outcome, despite the likelihood that her son will spend at least 30 years behind bars before he becomes eligible for parole consideration.

``The death penalty I don't think I could handle,'' she said.

Cromwell ordered a pre-sentence report for Owens, who also was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and firearm charges stemming from one of two quadruple slayings last summer in Virginia Beach.

The jury of nine women and three men spent as much time - a little more than three hours Monday and Tuesday - considering the sentence as they did Friday in finding Owens guilty of the execution-style slayings of his grandmother, a half-brother and two cousins.

Cromwell dismissed the panel after its foreman reported that the members were ``hopelessly deadlocked'' on the sentence. If Owens had been sentenced to die, he would have been the youngest person so condemned in Virginia since the state resumed executions in 1980.

In closing arguments at the sentencing hearing, Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys described Owens as Virginia's ``youngest mass murderer,'' someone who was willing to kill family members so there would be no witnesses to his theft of $1,200 from a cousin.

All of the victims were shot in the head. Owens' grandmother, Evelyn Ward, 63, was shot twice.

Defense attorneys B. Thomas Reed and Cynthia D. Barnaby offered evidence that Owens had a troubled upbringing, including living for a time with his mother and three younger brothers in a squalid, oceanfront motel room. His father is in federal prison.

Owens spent time in several juvenile offender facilities on cocaine charges until less than three months before the murders last July 22. His parole officers and a counselor testified that his behavior was good and he was never violent.

by CNB