PUBLISHED SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2003

Troubled teen, angry uncle: fatal mix

15-year-old claims self-defense in brutal slaying
Read also: King brothers draw sympathetic spotlight from fellow troubled teenager

AlanGomez@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

When deputies found Jack Carter`s body in a Beulah bedroom July 16, he had a nearly 4-inch-deep gash in his neck, his jugular vein was sliced and his arm was nearly severed. Outside the house, 15-year-old Daniel Carter was covered in blood and muttering to himself.

Deputies tried to calm him down, telling him everything would be OK.
"No, it won`t," Daniel said. "I just killed my uncle. What am I going to do?"

Ten cuts on Carter`s body and a bloody crime scene indicated a brutal murder. But Daniel claimed self-defense from the start. Nevertheless, he was quickly arrested and indicted as an adult on a first-degree murder charge carrying a mandatory sentence of life in pri-son. For the last six months, he has been in the Escambia County Jail awaiting his trial in April.

Daniel`s case is the second time in a year and a half that the local criminal justice system will struggle to determine how to handle a teenager charged with murder.

The internationally publicized legal saga of Alex and Derek King beating their sleeping father to death with a baseball bat ended in December with 14-year- old Derek being sent to a juvenile detention facility for eight years and 13-year-old Alex being sent to another such facility for seven years.

But Daniel`s case has not grabbed the public`s attention.

Somehow, the masses of people who jumped at the chance to help the angelic-looking King boys, who had little remorse or explanation for their actions, have completely ignored Daniel, a scruffy and rebellious boy whose claim of self-defense is swaying the prosecutor.

As attorneys pore through the evidence and statements from witnesses in Daniel`s case, they are beginning to realize he may have been telling the truth: His uncle threatened and attacked him, and he acted only to defend himself.

Daniel told Escambia County investigators that his uncle called before coming to the home the teen and his single mother shared, and threatened to tie him up and cut off his testicles. Indeed, deputies found a buck knife in Jack Carter`s pocket and a length of rope.

Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer, who also prosecuted the Kings, has offered Daniel a plea bargain.

Under the agreement, Daniel would plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a maximum nine years in prison. It`s a far cry from life in prison, though more than what the King boys received.

Rimmer said he`s trying to strike a fair balance.

"The totality of the facts may not have a lot of jury appeal, because the kid`s in his own house, the uncle is angry," Rimmer said. "But a jury might find that he was initially justified to defend himself, but at some point, he exceeded that."

James Stokes, who represented Alex and now represents Daniel, hasn`t decided if a nine-year sentence is short enough.

He said he and Daniel are in a bind, caught between opting for the guaranteed lighter sentence or taking a risk by handing the decision to a jury.

Daniel Carter, 15, look on as others come before Judge John Kuder at the M.C. Blanchard Judicial Building for their arraignments.