THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 21, 1995 TAG: 9509210404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Marvin Owens was sentenced Wednesday to two life terms plus 58 years in prison for the shooting deaths of his grandmother, half-brother and two cousins.
Circuit Judge Robert B. Cromwell Jr. pronounced sentence moments after Owens stood and said: ``I didn't do it.'' Owens, the state's youngest mass murderer, will be eligible for parole consideration in about 25 years.
Because jurors could not decide in June whether Owens should be executed for crimes committed on July 22, 1994, when he was 16, he automatically was sentenced to life in prison for capital murder.
Owens showed little emotion as the judge sentenced him to an additional life term for first-degree murder, 18 years for four firearms charges and 40 years for robbery. His attorneys plan an appeal.
Minutes after the hearing, his mother cried outside the courtroom.
``I know he didn't do it,'' Wanda Williams said. ``I'm just glad he didn't get the death penalty. He had no reason to do it. He loved his grandmother, he loved his brother, he loved his cousins. As far as the $1,200, he could make that in two or three hours on the street.''
B. Thomas Reed, one of the attorneys representing Owens, reminded the judge Wednesday that Owens maintains his innocence and asked for leniency. He also cited Owens' lack of direction and role models as a child.
But Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys, who coincidentally once prosecuted Owens' father on drug charges that sent him to federal prison, argued that many youths from similar troubled backgrounds overcome their pasts.
He also noted Owens' complete lack of remorse. After killing ``four of the closest people on Earth to him,'' he left the 2300 block of Seaboard Road and went off with friends and smoked marijuana, Humphreys said.
``To treat this defendant as anything other than the cold-blooded, calculating, albeit young, criminal that he is would send the wrong message to him and the public,'' Humphreys said.
Owens was convicted of fatally shooting his 63-year-old grandmother and one-time legal guardian, Evelyn Ward; his cousin Clifton Harper, 19; another cousin, Thelma Harper, 37; and his half-brother, Robert L. Ward Jr., 14. That resulted in a capital murder conviction for killing two or more people, first-degree murder for killing Clifton Harper, four firearms charges and robbery.
At the closing of Owens' trial, Reed argued that the victims' blood was not found on Owens' clothes, that Owens had no history of juvenile violence and that no bitterness existed between Owens and the slain family members.
Testifying in his own defense at his trial, Owens said he accidentally shot Clifton Harper when he was showing him a gun. Owens said he dropped the gun and called 911, but was interrupted when a man named Dee picked up the gun, pointed it at him and told him to get out.
Humphreys, however, told the jury that Owens lied repeatedly about the shooting, one of two quadruple murders in Virginia Beach that summer. Humphreys said Owens told 15 versions of events during a 7 1/2-hour videotaped interview with police, then told a 16th version on the witness stand during his trial. ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Beth Bergman
Marvin Owens: He told the judge, ``I didn't do it,'' then showed
little emotion as he was sentenced. He'll be up for parole
consideration in 25 years.
Wanda Williams, Marvin Owens' mother: ``I know he didn't do it. . .
. He had no reason to do it.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER TRIAL SENTENCING JUVENILE by CNB