News media can cover some hearings in teen's murder trial

By The Associated Press,
freedomforum.org staff

07.19.02

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A judge yesterday ruled that the news media could cover at least two court hearings involving a teenager accused of killing 8-year-old Justin Marlow Lewter.

Yesterday morning, Mecklenburg District Court Judge Lisa Bell decided to allow the news media access to a hearing that afternoon on the teenager's detention status. An Aug. 28 proceeding is also to be open to the public, judicial assistant Linda Brooks said.

Subsequent hearings — including one on whether to transfer the case to Superior Court so the 17-year-old can be tried as an adult on a second-degree murder charge — may be closed at the judge's discretion, Brooks said.

On July 17, a defense lawyer and a prosecutor argued that all proceedings should be closed, with defense lawyer Theo Nixon saying media coverage was responsible for his client receiving death threats from the public.

"There's no benefit to my client of this process being open," Nixon told Bell. Nixon added that in juvenile proceedings, the question of "what's going to be in the best interests of this child" trumps public interest in knowing the details of what goes on in court.

Nixon said his client, now 17, "looks like an adult and has the operating mentality of a 12-year-old."

Nixon was joined by Mecklenburg Assistant District Attorney Marsha Goodenow in asking that hearings be closed as long as the defendant is being treated as a juvenile.

However, District Attorney Peter Gilchrist has said his office would seek to have the teen tried as an adult.

Attorney Brad Kutrow, representing The Charlotte Observer, television station WBTV and radio station WBT, told Bell, "Closing the courtroom will not make the public interest in this case go away. There still will be reporting on this case."

Kutrow was joined by Sally Higgins, representing WCNC-TV and a cable-news station, Channel 14.

The defendant was back in court yesterday afternoon, for completion of his first appearance following his arrest last week and a review of his detention status. Bell had delayed completion of the hearing so that the defendant's mother could be in court.

The Charlotte Observer reported today that at the afternoon hearing, Bell ordered that the suspect must remain in a juvenile detention facility and scheduled another hearing on the matter for July 29.

The defendant was 15 in October 1999, when Justin was found strangled in a home under construction. Police have said the teen admitted killing Justin, though they have not said when he confessed. The teen was arrested last week.

A police detective said the teenager often played with Justin and was among the last people to see him alive. He said the teen was interviewed shortly after the killing and has long been considered a suspect.

Nixon complained that the media cannot be trusted to protect his client, noting that although The Charlotte Observer has not identified his client, it ran a photograph — taken from behind and at a distance — of the defendant being brought to court last week.

"There's the media, trying to protect my client," Nixon said sarcastically. "They want to sell papers."

In an interview, Susan Gilbert, the Observer's director of photography, said the newspaper "wanted to give some representation of the news story. After a long discussion by senior editors, we did not feel that the defendant was identifiable."

Goodenow said issues would be brought up during a hearing on whether to try the teen as an adult that would never be admissible in adult court and that could prejudice a future jury.

She said the Lewter family has requested that the hearings be closed to the media.

Kutrow responded that other high-profile defendants, including serial killer Henry Wallace and pro football player Rae Carruth, received fair trials in Charlotte in spite of even greater coverage than the Lewter case has received.