ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
THE 18-YEAR-OLD beat the malicious wounding charge but still went to jail on a 30-day sentence for an unrelated conviction of impeding police.
Frustrated by testimony that took as many directions as the bullets that were fired during a shootout at a Roanoke housing project, a judge on Tuesday dismissed a malicious wounding charge against a city teen-ager.
But that didn't stop Circuit Judge Robert P. Doherty from making a dire prediction to the 18-year-old man and other young witnesses who gave conflicting accounts about what happened the afternoon of April 23 at the Bluestone public housing project.
"You're not going to live to be adults," Doherty told them. "You're going to kill each other off."
The judge was so struck by the number of shots fired - and the nonchalant way that witnesses described the shootout - that he issued the warning to everyone involved in the case as he explained his decision.
Doherty said he reluctantly was dismissing the charges because "I just couldn't determine what the facts were. It doesn't mean that I didn't believe there was a whole lot of shooting going on on both sides."
More than 16 shots were fired, three people were wounded, and five were charged with malicious wounding after four carloads of young men rode into the Northeast Roanoke housing project to settle a score.
Roanoke police - who have seen more guns in the hands of juveniles in recent years - said at the time of the shooting that they could not recall another case where so many armed people went after each other.
"It was an old-fashioned gunfight," said Eric Spencer, a defense attorney who represented the 18-year-old, who is not being named because he was 17 at the time of the shooting. "But the evidence was in conflict to the extent that nobody charged was convicted."
Earlier this year, a judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court dismissed malicious wounding charges against three men and one juvenile charged in the shooting. The judge convicted the 18-year-old, who then appealed to Circuit Court.
The 18-year-old, who was shot in the buttocks during the gunfight, had been allowed to remain free on bond pending his appeal. Although his malicious wounding conviction was overturned, he still went to jail Tuesday. Doherty convicted him of an unrelated charge of impeding police and sentenced him to 30 days.
Different witnesses told different stories. Some people testified that men who were never charged fired shots. Others said they never saw guns in the hands of men that were charged. A clear picture of what happened at Bluestone never emerged.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Melvin Hill said the conflicting testimony could have been a result of confusion caused by a least five people firing guns in different directions at the same time.
The shooting apparently stemmed from an argument that Kenya Reynolds had the previous day. She testified that about a dozen young men showed up at her apartment to settle the score and were met by a group of her friends and relatives.
What started as a fistfight quickly escalated to a gunfight, she said.
"They were just shooting," she testified at the earlier hearing in juvenile court. "I don't know if they even knew what they were shooting at."
One of the youths "was smiling and laughing the whole time he was popping the gun," she said.
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