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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995                   TAG: 9508030069
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

TEENS APOLOGIZE FOR PARALYZING BOY

Two teen-agers acquitted of the aggravated malicious wounding of a 5-year-old boy who was paralyzed by a gunshot wound to the neck apologized Wednesday.

``Even though I was there and was involved in this, it was not me who did this,'' David Hitchcock told the jury, which convicted him and co-defendant Kevin Canady on three lesser charges.

``I'm sorry,'' Canady told the jury. ``I never meant for anything like this to happen.''

Despite the apologies, the jury of seven women and five men recommended the maximum sentence of 23 years in prison for each defendant on convictions of using a firearm, shooting into an occupied dwelling and shooting from a motor vehicle. Circuit Judge Robert Curran set sentencing for Oct. 27.

If Hitchcock and Canady, both 19, had been convicted on the malicious wounding charge, they could have faced up to life in prison.

- Associated Press

by CNB