DATE: Wednesday, June 11, 1997              TAG: 9706110419

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN AND CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  107 lines

CARJACKING LEAVES BEACH WOMAN SHAKEN TRYING TO DO A GOOD DEED BACKFIRES AS TEENS THREATEN LIFE, INJURE TWO OTHERS.

For several terrifying minutes, Linda Brown didn't know whether the 13-year-old boy who was driving her car and his 14-year-old female companion would stab her to death or let her go Monday night.

But after threatening her with a knife and arguing with each other, the youths who had stolen Brown's car freed her outside her boyfriend's house. Then they continued their violent rampage, during which they stabbed one man several times and ran over another with the car, police said.

When it was over, the youths - who reportedly ran away from The Crisis Intervention Home on 13th Street near the Oceanfront - were arrested. The felony charges could bring life sentences if the youths are tried as adults.

``They were just kids,'' Brown said Tuesday afternoon at her home in Virginia Beach. When she gave the youths a ride, ``I was thinking I was doing the right thing.''

Brown, 20, was shaken but unharmed. Her boyfriend, Charles Bovastro II, suffered small stab wounds on his head, face, neck and hand. His brother, Reginald, suffered a broken toe when he was struck by the car driven by the 13-year-old, police said.

It all began at 8:55 p.m. when Brown was going to her car after dining at the Red Lobster on Lynnhaven Parkway. The teens, whose names were not released because of their ages, told Brown they needed a ride home.

The youths asked Brown to drive them to the Plaza Apartments in the Princess Anne Plaza section of the city, which she did. When they arrived, Brown got out of the car to let the boy out of the back seat. At that point, he came up behind her, pulled a knife and held it to her neck, she said.

``The only thing I could do was close my eyes and just pray,'' Brown said.

She told them they could have the car, but to drop her off at her boyfriend's home. She also tried to calm the teens by talking with them.

``I was trying to have a nice conversation, but they kept saying `Shut up,' '' she said. ``(They said) if I didn't shut up they were going to drop me off in the woods somewhere.''

When they arrived at her boyfriend's home in the Oak Springs neighborhood, the teens could not decide what to do with her, Brown said. All the while the girl continued to threaten Brown with the knife, which Brown said looked like a paring knife.

Sitting in the back seat of the red Honda Civic, Brown yelled and pounded on the window. The youths drove past her boyfriend's home in the 900 block of Meadowood Drive several times, arguing about whether to drop her off, stab her, or leave her in a secluded area, she said.

Finally, they let her out at the home and sped away.

She rang the doorbell several times and pounded on the front door. She then rushed in and told the Bovastros what happened so they could call police.

The Bovastro brothers then jumped into a car and sped away in search of the teens. When they spotted the Honda at the intersection of Stoneshore Drive and Holland Road, Charles Bovastro positioned Reginald's Toyota in front of the Honda and jumped out.

When Charles reached into the Honda to grab the boy, the 13-year-old began to speed away. As Charles hung onto the boy, the Honda hit Reginald Bovastro, then struck the Toyota.

``It was like a dream, like you see on TV, real fuzzy,'' Reginald Bovastro, 20, said.

As the vehicle sped west on Holland Road, Charles managed to pull himself into the Honda. He said he was stabbed repeatedly by the girl.

``I just wanted to kill them because they hit my brother,'' Charles Bovastro, 22, said.

Charles Bovastro said he tried several times to stop the teens, at one point pulling out a clump of the girl's hair, but she kept stabbing him.

The teens offered to take him to the hospital, he said. ``They just wanted me to get out of the car because I was causing so much trouble.''

They finally let him out at a gas station. Charles realized then that he was injured. Both brothers were treated at Virginia Beach General Hospital and released.

Police issued a regional and nationwide broadcast for officers to be on the lookout for the teens and the Honda. About 3:15 a.m. Tuesday, Portsmouth police officer Kenneth Bachman spotted the car on Frederick Boulevard, pulled it over and apprehended the boy. The girl was taken into custody from a Portsmouth home a short time later.

Each teen was charged with two counts of malicious wounding, one count of carjacking and one count of abduction. They were being held at the Tidewater Detention Home and are scheduled to be arraigned in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court today.

The girl, police said, is enrolled at Hunt-Mapp Middle School in Portsmouth and the boy is enrolled at Lynnhaven Middle School in Virginia Beach.

Police did not say why the teens were staying at the Crisis Intervention Home, a privately run emergency facility that takes youths who need temporary help their families cannot provide.

Police reported five carjackings in Virginia Beach in 1996. In Portsmouth last year, there were 12. Figures from other cities were not available.

Virginia Beach police spokesman Mike Carey said that police do not recommend allowing strangers into your car.

``In this case, Linda Brown was trying to be a good Samaritan to these kids,'' Carey said.

But in the future, Brown said, she will not give strangers a ride, no matter how old they are.

``I just felt bad for them,'' she said about the teens. ``I just wanted to give them a ride.''

She said she has been reliving the ordeal.

``I just keep thinking of his voice and him coming out of the car up behind me,'' she said.

Brown is studying at Tidewater Community College to be a teacher. She said she plans to teach children the same ages as her attackers. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

JIM WALKER

Linda Brown, left, alleges that two teens terrorized her and injured

Charles Bovastro II during a carjacking Monday night in Virginia

Beach. The suspects are in custody. KEYWORDS: CARJACKING

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