Panhandle teen says on tape he never intended to kill
uncle
By BILL KACZOR Associated Press
Writer PENSACOLA, Fla. A
teenager told investigators he never intended to kill his uncle, a
Kung Fu artist, but repeatedly stabbed the man to stop him from
beating and kicking him, according to a tape-recorded interview
played for jurors Wednesday.
Daniel Carter was 15 when he
killed Jack Carter, 46, of Navarre Beach, after he burst into the
teen's bedroom on July 16, 2002 in the Beulah community northwest of
Pensacola. The defense contends the uncle was in a drunken and
drug-induced rage.
"He was using his fists, he was using his
feet, he was using his flashlight," Daniel told Escambia County
sheriff's investigators during the interview.
The boy, now
16, claims he used the rusty butcher knife, inherited from his late
grandfather, in self-defense, but he is charged with premeditated
first-degree murder. The only penalty Florida law allows is life in
prison without parole if he is convicted as charged.
The
prosecution later rested its case. Defense lawyer Patrece Cashwell
will present her evidence Thursday, and Circuit Judge Terry Terrell
said he expects the jury to get the case Friday.
Daniel told
his questioners that he never would have tried to stop his uncle,
who also threatened to tie him up and castrate him, if he had known
what the result would be.
"I was mad, but not to that
extent," the boy said on the tape. "I can't believe I did that. I
didn't know any other way."
Frank Filligim, one of two
investigators who questioned Daniel, said the boy had been crying
before but not during the interview.
Filligim said it
appeared he was not so much scared as he was angry that his uncle
had broken his television set, stereo and video game during their
confrontation.
A friend of the teen, Brian Voeks, 20,
testified Daniel had shown him the knife earlier that day and said
he would slit his uncle's throat if he was attacked. It was
something Voeks never told authorities until Sunday, a day before
the trial began.
Assistant State Attorney David Rimmer is
trying to use testimony about Daniel's possible mind-set, multiple
wounds Jack Carter suffered and expert medical opinion to prove the
teen intended to commit murder.
The boy's mother, Cindy
Carter, testified Tuesday that she had asked her brother to have a
"man-to-man" talk with Daniel because she suspected he and a friend
planned to obtain and sell marijuana. She said her brother also was
angry that Daniel had gotten into some of his surfing
magazines.
Opponents of prosecuting juveniles as adults held
a news conference during the trial's lunch break to voice support
for Daniel.
"Once again, Pensacola has embarrassed - Florida
has embarrassed - the entire nation with this unbelievable
prosecution of children," said Bishop Thomas Masters, pastor of New
Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Riviera Beach in southeastern
Florida. "They are not being tried by their peers. It is unfair to
ask adults to try to get into the mind-set of a
child."
Masters, leader of a group called Under Our Wings,
cited the cases of Alex and Derek King, who were 12 and 13 when they
killed their father with a baseball bat near Pensacola in 2001 and
Rebecca Falcon, convicted in Panama City of killing a cab driver in
1997 when she was 15.
The King boys were charged with
first-degree, convicted of second-degree and pleaded guilty to
third-degree murder after a judge threw out their verdicts. Alex was
sentenced to seven years and Derek to eight in juvenile
prison.
Falcon was convicted of first-degree murder and is
serving life with no parole possible. An appellate court rejected
her appeal. Her mother, Karen Kaneer, said she now plans to seek
clemency.
