THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270521
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 102 lines
Calling the torching of three portable classrooms at an elementary school in May a ``crime against the whole community,'' a Juvenile Court judge on Thursday transferred the arson trials of four juveniles to Circuit Court, where they could be tried as adults.
The fires at Windsor Oaks Elementary School on May 12 and 25 destroyed all the school's portable classrooms and caused $165,000 in damage.
Judge H. Thomas Padrick Jr. said the fires were ``a great tragedy for everybody,'' including the families of the four juveniles charged with the crimes.
``I feel especially sorry for the parents because I can't see what they did to cause this behavior,'' Padrick said. ``It was a very serious series of offenses (and) nobody gained anything from it . . . I don't know why any of you did it.''
In making his ruling, Padrick said he took into consideration that all four juveniles at the time of the fires were students at Princess Anne High School, which had been partly destroyed by arson eight months earlier.
``Even with that, they went ahead and committed these arsons,'' Padrick said.
Police and fire investigators do not consider the four juveniles suspects in the Sept. 1 Princess Anne fire or in any other unsolved arson case in the city.
The juveniles were identified as Brian Bell, 15 at the time of the crime, Brodie Brown, 17, Alan Ferrara, 16, and Robert Laramay, 17. All four are charged with arson, burglary and conspiracy to commit arson and burglary. All except Ferrara also are charged with grand larceny.
Padrick set $25,000 personal recognizance bonds for each.
Attorneys for all four juveniles said they will appeal Padrick's decision in Circuit Court. If successful, the cases would be returned to Juvenile Court for trial. Otherwise, the boys will be tried in November.
If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 10 years for arson, 20 years for burglary and five years for conspiracy. All but Ferrara face multiple counts, including counts of grand larceny.
Two of the boys' defense attorneys criticized Padrick for making a decision that, they said, was primarily an effort to appease citizens shaken by a recent series of fires at Virginia Beach public schools.
``I think it is partly political,'' said attorney Russell Fentress, who represents Ferrara. ``One of the things that bothered him most was the Princess Anne High School fire.''
``This happened in a city where schools have been torched,'' said Emma Simpson, Laramay's attorney. ``I personally believe that is why this case was transferred.''
The Princess Anne fire swept through 29 classrooms, the library and the cafeteria before it was brought under control. Water and smoke damage extended into other parts of the school, including the auditorium, which was badly damaged even though no flames reached it.
Repairs are still under way and the school should be open for classes in January.
Meanwhile, about 2,500 of the school's 2,900 students have been housed in Celebration Station, a defunct shopping mall on Virginia Beach Boulevard and King Richard Drive, two miles east of the high school.
The others are housed in portable classrooms and undamaged classrooms at the high school.
Investigators have yet to charge anybody with that arson.
Fires also struck First Colonial High School April 2 and Green Run High School May 21. Both remain unsolved.
The Windsor Oaks fires were unsolved until fire and police investigators interviewed three of the boys at their homes June 4. Although each initially denied any involvement, they all broke down during interrogations.
Each rendition of how the fires started differed, but all agreed that only Brown and Bell were implicated on both May 12 and 25.
Bell told investigators that on the evening of May 11 he and Brown broke into one of the portable classrooms at Windsor Oaks and stole several musical instruments, including a flute and cymbals.
The two boys also spread papers on the floor before leaving with the stolen items and going to Ferrara's house.
At the house, Bell said, all four of the boys filled a salsa jar with gasoline and went back to the classrooms in Brown's truck. It was now early in the morning of May 12.
The boys, Bell said, stole a VCR from one of the classrooms and then Brown lit the gasoline-soaked papers on the floor of the classrooms. Two portable buildings burned May 12.
The VCR was stashed in a recreational vehicle at Ferrara's house. Police also recovered a flute and other items from Laramay's bedroom in his parents' house.
On May 25, Bell said, he returned with Brown to the school and again put papers on the floor, along with a message board, and soaked them with gasoline before the boys set fire to them. One classroom burned on the 25th.
Brown told police that it was Bell who pried open windows at the classrooms with a screwdriver, enabling the boys to enter the buildings.
Police also have charged Bell with setting fire to a soft drink machine at the Tivoli Apartments in Virginia Beach July 5. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Alan Ferrara
Brian Bell
Brodie Brown
Robert Laramay
KEYWORDS: ARSON ARREST TRIAL by CNB