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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 4, 1995                   TAG: 9511050015
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND'

On Friday afternoon, Carter's most recent girlfriend was in court - to be sentenced for stabbing him to death while he was drunk and abusive.

Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell, whose office prosecuted Carter in 1983, noted the similarities in the two cases as he recommended a punishment for Brenda G. Parker.

"What goes around, comes around," Caldwell said. He asked that Parker serve just three years in prison for killing Carter.

Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein followed Caldwell's recommendation and also ordered that Parker receive treatment for a drug and alcohol problem during an additional three years of probation.

Parker, 34, had earlier pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the May 4 death of Carter at an apartment they shared on Eighth Street Northwest.

Parker has told authorities that she used a small knife to protect herself when Carter, 68, lunged at her with a screwdriver. The knife caught Carter in the neck, but he seemed unfazed - grabbing his bottle of wine and sitting on the sofa to watch television.

After tossing him a towel, Parker would later tell police, she left him in the apartment. Although the small puncture wound to Carter's neck may have looked harmless, he ended up dying from internal bleeding.

Parker returned to the apartment a few hours later with friends, and they sat around drinking for several hours. They assumed Carter was passed out drunk until they tried to wake him.

Four days later, Parker attempted suicide by overdosing on prescription medication. She was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where she confessed to two nurses. The hospital contacted police, and Parker was arrested.

Assistant Public Defender Jackie Talevi said Parker had never received intensive treatment for her drug and alcohol problem, and asked Weckstein to make that part of her sentence.

"I need help real bad," Parker testified. "If it wasn't for alcohol and drugs, I wouldn't be here today."

Because the killing happened after Jan. 1, Parker will not be eligible for parole. But credit for good behavior could reduce her sentence to 31 months.

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