Teen chooses not to testify at his trial in uncle's killing
By Wire services
Published March 5, 2004
PENSACOLA - A teenager who says he fatally stabbed his uncle in self-defense chose not to testify Thursday at his murder trial, which will go to the jury after closing arguments today.
The defense rested its case after introducing evidence designed to show that Daniel Carter, 16, was a victim of child abuse at the hands of his uncle, Jack Carter, 46, of Navarre, and that the youth used lethal force only to protect himself on the night of June 16, 2002.
Daniel is accused by prosecutors of premeditated first-degree murder and would receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted as charged.
The boy, who was then 15, said his uncle broke through his bedroom door at his mother's home in the nearby Beulah community in a drunken and drug-induced rage, hit and kicked him and threatened to tie him up and castrate him.
Although Daniel did not testify, jurors Wednesday heard him say, in a taped interview with investigators a day after the killing, that he never intended to kill his uncle.
"I just wanted him to stop, and he wouldn't," Daniel said on the tape. "If I had known that I would have killed him, I would have just let him beat me."
Tom Brame, program coordinator for the 1st Circuit Juvenile Assessment Center, testified that after the killing Daniel had a cut on his hand that was stitched up and welts on his neck that appeared to be finger marks.
"He seemed to be sleepy and traumatized," Brame said. "He did not appear angry. ... He appeared to be pretty glazed over."
His testimony was introduced to rebut an Escambia County sheriff's investigator who told jurors Daniel didn't seem too scared during questioning but did appear angry because his uncle had broken his television set, stereo and video game equipment.
Circuit Judge Terry Terrell 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.
