By Cherly Caswell
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — A Charleston man will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole for beating one roommate to death with a baseball bat and seriously injuring another.
A jury found Kenneth Eugene Carter guilty last month of first-degree murder and malicious wounding. It was the second trial for Carter, whose first trial in March resulted in a hung jury that could not reach a verdict.
The beating occurred last July at the Beuhring Avenue apartment Carter shared with two other men. Ron Forton, 51, was killed and Bradie Dunlap, 61, was wounded.
Forton’s body wasn’t discovered until a few days after Dunlap had been taken to the hospital and finally asked if anyone had checked on his roommate.
On Monday, Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky denied motions from Carter for another trial and for a judgment of acquittal based on his belief that he didn’t receive a fair trial.
Carter’s public defense attorney, Charles Hamilton, told the judge that only a few of the many swabs police took of the baseball bat were tested for DNA. Those swabs showed blood from the victims, but no DNA from Carter.
He requested that all of the swabs taken be tested. If Carter’s DNA is not found on any of them, Hamilton said it should be considered new evidence and grounds for a new trial.
He also said the fact that some of the jurors had previously served together for a trial of another defendant might have prejudiced them toward another guilty conviction. A request was made to interview jurors now.
Carter himself begged the judge to grant a new trial and another look at the DNA evidence.
“I feel that if the handle had somebody else’s DNA on it, it would show the culprit,” Carter said. “And it was not me. I did not commit this crime.”
He insisted in both trials that Dunlap and Forton often fought and were sometimes violent. They were fighting earlier that evening, and he slept through the beatings, he told jurors.
Carter objected to photographs and videos shown in the courtroom during the trial. He said they were fuzzy and then the equipment didn’t work at all.
He said the assistant prosecutor’s final words to the jury in his closing argument sealed his fate.
Charles Miller, an assistant prosecutor who handled the case, objected to those points, calling some of the reasoning “obscure” and the request to interview jurors “bordering on harassment.”
He called a retesting of DNA evidence a “waste of time and resources.” Carter shook his head as Miller addressed the judge.
“The jury found him guilty of murder. They did not recommend mercy,” Miller said. “He has four prior felony convictions. He has been repeatedly arrested for being engaged in violent conduct.\
“He poses a danger to citizens of this state and should be incarcerated and never again walk among free men,” Miller said.
Carter was also sentenced to two to 10 years for the malicious wounding of Dunlap, who was expected to speak at the hearing but did not attend.
Copyright 2012 Charleston Newspapers