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Sunday, September 28, 1997

14-year-old boy to stand trial for murder in teacher's death

DALLAS (AP) -- A 14-year-old boy charged with murder in the slaying of a popular schoolteacher is scheduled to go on trial Monday.

Billy Ray Dennis Jr. had been released to his mother's custody in a previous case when he was arrested and charged in the March 15 shooting death of Rasheed Sabour, 48.

Dennis had his first brush with police as a 10-year-old runaway, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Saturday editions. Three years later, he was arrested on car theft charges and was selling crack, the newspaper reported, citing court records.

He faces life imprisonment if convicted on the murder charge.

The image of the 5-foot-3, 95-pound boy differs dramatically, depending on who's doing the describing.

His mother described him to authorities as an obedient son who kept his room neat, helped with household chores and watched after his little brother.

"He barely can hold a fork and spoon," said Vonda Dennis, 36. "He ain't no vicious nothing."

His attorney agrees. "He's not a monster," said Paul Johnson of Dallas. "To me, he's just a scared little kid."

First Assistant District Attorney Norman Kinne said Dennis's boyish looks are misleading.

"His conduct has the viciousness of any adult that I have ever seen," Kinne said. "This is a coldblooded killing."

The slain teacher's son wants to know why Dennis was on the streets when the teacher was killed.

"The county should have taken more control," said Sabour's son, Malik Sabour, 26. "How did they expect something like that to work? They should have put him in juvenile (detention)."

County officials say they had no reason to think Dennis would hurt anyone in January when they released him to his mother. Police had arrested him in a string of property crimes, but probation officials said he had no history of violent offenses.

But Dennis broke free of an electronic monitoring device and evaded them for two months until his arrest after the Sabour slaying, county officials said. Police say the boy also shot and seriously wounded a Mesquite woman a month before his arrest because she refused to perform a sex act.

"It's very unfortunate this occurred," said Michael K. Griffiths, director of the Dallas County Juvenile Department. "We examine our procedures every time there's an incident of this gravity. I don't think the system should be indicted for this."

Witnesses in the murder case told police Dennis confronted Sabour with a gun and ordered him to get out of his minivan. When Sabour refused, Dennis shot him once in the chest, they said.

Johnson said his client did not mean to shoot Sabour when the two crossed paths outside a liquor and grocery store, just south of Fair Park.

Dennis was certified to stand trial on murder charges as an adult under a 1996 state law that lowered the minimum age from 15. Under the law, teens may be tried as adults if accused of violent crimes and a judge deems them a threat to the community.

Last year, Texas courts certified about 508 juveniles younger than 17 to stand trial as adults -- about 110 of them in homicide cases, according to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission.