Teen was not angry after killing, jury told

PENSACOLA - A teenager who says he fatally stabbed his uncle in self-defense was traumatized but not angry a few hours after the killing, a juvenile justice official told a jury Thursday.

The testimony was part of a defense effort to show that Daniel Carter, 16, was a victim of child abuse at the hands of his uncle, Jack Carter, 46, of Navarre, and had used lethal force only to protect himself on the night of June 16, 2002.

Daniel, however, is accused of premeditated first-degree murder and would receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted as charged. The case is expected to go to the six-member jury today.

The boy, then 15, claims his uncle broke through his bedroom door at his mother's home in the nearby Beulah community in a drunken and drug-induced rage and used his Kung Fu training to hit and kick him and threatened to tie him up and castrate him.

Tom Brame, program coordinator for the 1st Circuit Juvenile Assessment Center, testified Daniel had a cut on his hand that was stitched up and red welts on his neck that appeared to be finger marks after the killing.

''He seemed to be sleepy and traumatized,'' Brame said. ``He did not appear angry. . . . He appeared to be pretty glazed over.''

Brame's testimony was introduced to rebut an Escambia County sheriff's investigator who told jurors that Daniel didn't seem too scared during subsequent questioning but did appear angry because his uncle had broken his television set, stereo and video game equipment.

Circuit Judge Terry Terrell refused to let defense lawyer Patrece Cashwell introduce an assessment test Brame had done that showed Daniel scored low on anger and high on trauma.

Terrell also agreed with prosecutors and blocked another uncle, Dave Carter, of Tyler, Texas, from testifying that his late brother had a violent streak and severely beat his dogs. He was allowed, however, to tell the jury that their mother often beat her children, including Jack Carter, to discipline them.

''That's the only thing he knew,'' Dave Carter testified after wiping tears from his eyes.

Cindy Carter, Daniel's mother and the sister of the Carter brothers, also returned to the witness stand. She disputed testimony from Jack Carter's live-in girlfriend, Marni Jamison, that he had told her he was going to Cindy Carter's house because she feared for her life.

''I told Jack I was scared for Daniel's future,'' she said. ``I would never be afraid of Daniel.''

Cindy Carter earlier testified she had asked him to have a talk with her son because she suspected he was planning to sell marijuana with an older friend and that the boy had rummaged through Jack Carter's surfing magazines stored in her barn.