ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A 16-year-old boy who has admitted the December 1994 fatal shooting of a Wythe County deputy will be tried as an adult, but the specific charge is still in question.
An attorney for Christopher Shawn Wheeler argued Monday that the prosecution should not be allowed to seek an indictment on any charge more serious than second-degree murder in the death of Deputy Cliff Dicker.
Both sides had settled for the second-degree murder charge after Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge William Thomas ruled in August that Wheeler's confession is inadmissible because no guardian was present. But that agreement was jeopardized after Thomas later ruled that Wheeler should be tried as an adult.
Circuit Judge Colin Campbell on Monday upheld the decision to try Wheeler as an adult, because of the nature of the offense and because the juvenile correction system would have to free Wheeler when he turns 21.
Campbell said he could not rule on whether an indictment more serious than second-degree murder could be obtained against Wheeler because that question was premature. The prosecution has not obtained any indictment yet.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Blankenship said Virginia recognizes only one crime of murder, and a jury decides the degree of the offense. Defense attorney Jonathan Venzie argued that anything more serious than second-degree murder would undo the finding of the juvenile court.
If Blankenship obtains a grand jury indictment for capital murder or first-degree murder, Venzie said after Monday's court proceedings, the defense would move to quash it.
Campbell ruled that Wheeler would remain at a juvenile detention center in Christiansburg where he has been held for more than a year, rather than being transferred to the Wythe County jail, until further notice.
Wheeler, who had turned 15 three months before the deputy was shot Dec. 6, 1994, also faces two charges of using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Authorities said Wheeler was cleaning some squirrels from an early morning hunt when Dicker, 58, came to his home in Wytheville with juvenile petitions charging him with car theft and petty larceny.
According to the statement Wheeler gave - the one the juvenile court judge ruled inadmissible - he asked Dicker to be allowed to change out of his hunting clothes, then returned with his .22-caliber hunting rifle and wounded Dicker with it. Wheeler said in the statement that he shot Dicker again with the deputy's own 9mm pistol, killing him.
"There is a long tradition in Virginia for handling juvenile offenders differently from adults," Venzie argued. "Does this child get magically changed into an adult ... because this tragic event has occurred?''
Venzie said the system had failed Wheeler, an orphan raised mostly by a grandmother who had served a sentence for child abuse. "That's the woman a Wythe County juvenile court decided would be his guardian," Venzie said. "The system was never there for Shawn."
"This is the same old argument: Blame anyone but the defendant," Blankenship responded. "Punishment is a legitimate goal of the criminal justice system, and I would argue to the court that it is relied on too little."
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB