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The teenager accused of murdering a Courtland High School student in January will be tried as an adult, Spotsylvania County Juvenile Judge Joseph J. Ellis decided yesterday.
Ellis found probable cause to support a first-degree murder charge against 17-year-old Fredericksburg resident Marvin M. Parker II. Parker is accused of stabbing 16-year-old Baron Braswell II to death Jan. 20 at a CD-release party at Spotsylvania's Howard Johnson hotel.
A preliminary hearing was held yesterday for Parker and five James Monroe High School students charged with attacking Braswell at the party.
Each defendant had been accused of participating in a street gang, but those charges were dismissed at yesterday's hearing. Also yesterday, JM student Jamel Brooks was cleared of the remaining charge of attempted malicious wounding. Brooks is now free and clear.
The remaining JM students--P.J. Hayden, Lance Durante, Devin Bates and Robin Spinner--will return to court Monday. Defense attorneys will present their cases, seeking to have a felony charge of attempted malicious wounding dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor.
Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely opened his case yesterday by telling Ellis that the cases against Parker and the five JM students were "two separate and distinct crimes." The JM students were accused of kicking and stomping Braswell during a fight, but Parker alone is accused of the fatal stabbing.
Braswell's father testified yesterday that he allowed his son to go to the party in the Howard Johnson conference room because the Courtland junior had recently made the honor roll. The party was a reward. Braswell spent ample time beforehand flossing, brushing and getting himself ready to dance and meet girls, his father said.
Dehin P. Vaughn testified that her son's band--named Klyentell Entertainment--threw the party to help market its new rap album. They booked the room, and she helped with security that night. Party attendees paid $5 to get in and went through a metal detector. Vaughn said she doesn't know how the knife got inside.
Spotsylvania Deputy R.P. Pittman was called to the hotel about 11:30 that night. Braswell was on the ground bleeding and struggling to breathe when he arrived. Other teenagers were "piling out" of the conference room, Pittman said.
Six teenagers at the party testified yesterday about what led to Braswell's death. They said the fight started when "Knuck if You Buck" by the Crime Mob played, and the crowd started jumping around and bumping one another. Braswell and a James Monroe football player who wasn't charged got into a scuffle, with Braswell landing a punch.
The witnesses agreed on those points.
But there was a wide variety of opinions on what happened after Braswell ended up on the ground.
Many of the witnesses said that Bates was involved in the kicking and stomping, and nobody implicated Brooks. Witnesses were mixed on the involvement of Hayden, Durante and Spinner--some said they kicked Braswell, others said they didn't. All of the JM boys are football players at the Fredericksburg school, and Braswell played at Courtland.
A medical examiner testified that Braswell had only superficial injuries other than the stab wound, which nicked one of his ribs and penetrated his right ventricle. He died that night.
One teenage witness testified that she heard Parker bragging the next day that he had "shanked someone." Spotsylvania Detective Ed Lunsford testified that he found a folding knife hidden on a ceiling tile in the hotel conference room and interviewed Parker.
Lunsford said Parker told him that he pulled out the knife at the party after the fight broke out. He said Parker told him he was scared, and that he recalled little about the stabbing. He told Lunsford that Braswell might have run into the knife in the chaos that followed the fight, Lunsford testified. He said Parker admitted to getting onto a chair and hiding the knife on the tile.
Defense attorney Charles Cosby, who is representing Parker, said there was no evidence of premeditation, and urged Ellis to at least reduce the charge to second-degree murder. But the judge decided there was probable cause to support a charge of first-degree murder.
Under Virginia law, juveniles charged with first-degree murder are automatically transferred to adult court. Parker will also be transferred from juvenile detention to the Rappahannock Regional Jail. He'll likely be indicted when Spotsylvania's Circuit Court grand jury meets in June.
As for the gang charges against the defendants, Neely admitted at the start of the day that the evidence was "not as strong as it initially appeared." He said he went forward with the evidence to show the families and the community why the charges were filed.
Fredericksburg detective James Kuebler testified that police do have evidence that there is a group called the "Mayfield Mob" in the city, named after the Fredericksburg neighborhood. He said members of the group have faced drug-related offenses but that none has been prosecuted for being a gang member. Kuebler said none of the JM students is affiliated with the Mayfield Mob.
David Graham, an investigator with the Virginia Attorney General's Office, displayed Web sites on Myspace.com linked to the defendants. The sites contained rap lyrics, and a picture on one of them showed Brooks, Hayden and Bates flashing the signal of the Mayfield Mob--three fingers on each hand pointing down to form the letter "M."
Defense attorneys John Spencer and Phillip Sasser objected to Neely's showing the sites, arguing that they were intended to smear the defendants. Sasser, who represented Brooks, pointed out that his client attends SAT prep classes, is involved in his church and excels in school both academically and athletically.
Defense attorney Mark Gardner noted that it's not criminal to flash a hand signal that could simply show pride in a neighborhood. He compared it to the use of the "Hook 'em Horns" hand sign used by University of Texas fans.
Neely said detectives at first thought they had more evidence of the defendants being involved in previous violent fights. But he said that didn't pan out, and he didn't strenuously argue against the gang charges being dropped.
Neely also acknowledged after court yesterday that the JM students seemed to be "fine young men." But he warned against the kind of "imitation gangster" activity that some of them seemed to practice at times.
"If you walk like a duck, and you quack like a duck, then people think you're a duck," Neely said to a swarm of reporters outside court at the end of the day.
Durante, Bates, Hayden and Spinner will return to court Monday. Ellis ruled that their cases would not be transferred to Circuit Court.
Their lawyers urged the judge to reduce or dismiss the felony charge of attempted malicious wounding. They argued that there was no intent to injure Braswell, that the poor lighting and noise made witness testimony unreliable and that there was no evidence of their having hurt Braswell.
Neely responded that the stabbing likely wouldn't have occurred if the fight hadn't broken out in the first place.
Judge Ellis said the evidence was mixed, but he decided to let the felony charge go forward for now. He'll determine guilt or innocence after the defense rests and closing arguments are made.
To reach BILL FREEHLING:
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com
