THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260376
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
In a ruling that outraged the victim's mother, a judge on Wednesday suspended a six-month juvenile sentence and ordered probation for a teenager whose gunshot killed his best friend.
``As long as you're a good boy and you haven't gotten in trouble before, you can go ahead and kill your best friend and nothing will happen to you,'' said Michele Carrier, whose 14-year-old son, Benjamin, died on New Year's Eve 1993. ``That's the message.''
Circuit Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman suspended the youth's commitment to the Department of Youth and Family Services. He also prohibited the boy, who was 13 at the time of the shooting, from touching a firearm until he is 18, and from having guns in his home.
``Come on, what does that do?'' Carrier asked in an interview after court. ``With drunk drivers, they put them behind bars whether it was an accident or not. He could have at least done community service.''
Carrier had hoped the judge would make him talk to children about the shooting. The 13-year-old, using his father's gun, shot and killed Benjamin in an incident the court ruled accidental.
Judge Friedman, contacted after the private hearing, declined to comment on the case. But members of both families said that the judge explained his ruling by saying that he thought confinement would serve no good purpose, and that the youth's worst punishment would be living with the knowledge that he had killed his best friend.
Just last week, Michele Carrier took the boy's parents to lunch. ``I'm not angry with them,'' she said. ``It's the justice system I'm angry with.''
The name of the boy who shot Benjamin is not being published because he is a juvenile. He pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm. He was found not innocent in juvenile court and sentenced in September to six months in the Department of Youth and Family Services. He then appealed to Circuit Court.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the boy, now an eighth-grader, read a poem he said reminded him of his friendship with Benjamin:
``Miss you, miss you, miss you. Everything I do echoes with the laughter and the voice of you. You're on every corner. Every twist and turn, every old familiar spot whispers how you're missed.''
He also read a letter he had written: ``I just want to say that I'm really sorry. Although that won't bring back Ben. I mean if I could, I would bring him back. Ben was my best friend. I loved him as if he was my own brother. I wouldn't have done anything to harm him. I wish I could do something.''
The boy has said he was sorry more than once, Michele Carrier said. But she and her son, James, are not convinced that the shooting was an innocent mistake. They think that for a split-second, the boy, who had been Benjamin's best friend for two years, was angry enough to shoot Benjamin.
He died from a gunshot to the head with a .38-caliber hollow-point bullet.
Benjamin had been at the boy's house. The boy's parents weren't home. His father's handgun was in an open gun case, and the ammunition was stored below. Benjamin died the day after the shooting.
His father was found guilty of negligence, a misdemeanor, after the shooting. A judge sentenced him to six months but suspended the sentence on the condition of his good behavior for a year.
The shooting and court proceedings have taken their toll on both families.
``We do a lot of praying about it,'' said the father of the boy who shot Benjamin. ``It's not something that we'll ever forget, but you don't want to be caught up in it the rest of your life either.''
He says he knows if he were in Michele Carrier's place his perspective would be different.
``I don't know if it's even possible for me to get close to what she's experiencing,'' he said. ``I don't think it is. The best I can do is rationalize in my mind what it must be like.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Michele Carrier feels that the sentence given to the boy who
confessed to shooting her son is unjust.
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING JUVENILE INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER RULING
PROBATION by CNB