THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510290049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
As aliases go, it wasn't the most original: Ernest Hemingway. From Boston.
But as police questioned the 16-year-old boy they were holding on shoplifting charges Friday, they had no idea what truth his transparent deception covered.
Finally, he gave his real name - Benjamin Garris - and police learned he was not a hungry runaway grabbing something to eat and snatching some smokes.
This was a suspect in a brutal killing. A kid who investigators in Baltimore say stabbed a female counselor to death and then tried to cover the crime with arson; a teenager so fascinated by violence that he emulated the movie ``Natural Born Killers'' by shaving his head.
Garris, who faces trial as an adult for the slaying three weeks ago, was arrested Friday at an Oceanfront 7-Eleven store after being caught stealing candy by a clerk.
He is being held at the Tidewater Detention Home in Chesapeake and will have an extradition hearing Monday in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Arrest warrants characterize Garris as a ``manipulator, chronic liar and very intelligent.'' Writings left behind at the crime scene and linked to Garris detailed plans for several crimes and included ``a description on how to kill people,'' the warrants said.
Virginia Beach Police spokesman Mike Carey said Baltimore detectives arrived early Saturday to begin the extradition process. They questioned Garris, who is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree arson.
Local charges for shoplifting will not be pressed for now, Carey said.
Garris, of Frederick, Md., was one of five boys being housed in Fordham Cottage, a licensed home for boys recovering from a variety of mental problems. The home is part of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Townson, Md. There had never been a slaying at the hospital, which opened in 1891.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 8, hospital security officers discovered a fire at the cottage. As they doused the flames, they made another discovery: the body of Sharon Edwards.
The 28-year-old single mother had been on the hospital staff more than a year. But it was her first night shift in the cottage, Mark Eber, a hospital spokesman, told the Baltimore Sun.
There was no evidence to suggest that Garris and Edwards had ever argued or had any confrontations.Rather, ``We believe she's just an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said Lt. Sam Bowerman, a Baltimore homicide detective.
Shortly after the slaying, Baltimore police issued a nationwide alert for Garris.
There was no sign of Garris, however. Also missing was a former girlfriend, Jane DeCosta, 15, who vanished from her home and was believed to be willingly accompanying Garris.
Police now believe Garris and DeCosta took a bus to Virginia Beach shortly after the killing. ``He indicated that he wanted to come to an area that was warmer, where the climate was milder,'' Carey said. ``They were staying in some wooded areas and some area shelters.''
Although Garris has relatives in the Virginia Beach area, he apparently did not contact them, his father, Steve Garris, said Saturday after his ex-wife spoke with their son by telephone.
``He said he was considering turning himself in. He was tired of being on the run,'' Steve Garris told the Associated Press. He said he is relieved his son has been found, but is ``dreading what's ahead.''
The arrest was anti-climactic compared to the hunt for Garris. In addition to a nationwide alert, two television programs, ``America's Most Wanted'' and ``American Journal,'' profiled the case. The latter program had just aired about the same time as Garris walked into a 7-Eleven on 22nd St. on Friday.
A clerk at the store, Lee Paige, 45, grabbed Garris before he could flee with stolen cigarettes and candy. He turned the boy over to officers Andrew Spiess and Chris Carroll of the 2nd Precinct.
Carroll and Spiess took the boy back to their precinct and questioned him. But he initially was not cooperative and even defied them by claiming to be Hemingway.
``Not too many kids are named Ernest Hemingway. And the Social Security number he gave didn't jibe with where he said he was from, so that kind of raised a red flag,'' Carey said.
Carey said there was no sign Saturday of DeCosta. Although not wanted for any offense, she is listed as missing and police issued a description of her to all officers Saturday.
DeCosta, who also used the alias Heather Sexton, is described as white, 15, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 120 pounds, with a shaved head, dark blue, torn coveralls, a nose ring and three rings in her ears. She also has a tattoo of an ``A'' in a circle on a lower leg. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Baltimore detectives arrived Saturday to begin the extradition
process for Benjamin Garris, who was sought for three weeks before
being arrested at a Virginia Beach 7-Eleven for shoplifting. The
manhunt for the alleged killer of a Maryland counselor has been
profiled on the television shows ``America's Most Wanted'' and
``American Journal.''
KEYWORDS: MURDER ARREST by CNB