The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 17

The 2 State Wednesday, April 18, 1990 Columbia, South Carolina Man charged with murder claims nephew threatened him By JOHN ALLARD Staff Writer Seconds after Marshall C. "Shorty" Amerson shot a bullet into his nephew's brain, he tried to revive him. Amerson was administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation when Lt. Larry Homer of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department arrived at the shooting scene in Leesville on March 24, 1989, Homer testified. "He was crying and highly emotional," Homer testified.

"He told me, 'I didn't mean to shoot. It was an Amerson, 51, of Town Pond Road, Batesburg, is charged with murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a violent crime. Police said Amerson shot his 41-year-old nephew, Ralph Amerson, during an argument about 6:45 p.m. in front of Vernon's Amoco service station, 333 Church Leesville. Both men had been drinking heavily, police said.

Police have never found the gun, but they found an empty holster in Marshall's truck, which was parked at the service station. On Tuesday, Amerson glared at some of his relatives sitting behind the prosecution table throughout jury selection. Homer said blood was flowing out of Ralph Amerson's left ear and nose after he was shot once in the left temple. The bullet lodged in his brain. Ralph Amerson died one hour after the shooting.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave dramatically different accounts of the accessories 5 AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY Behind bars for a good cause A Lexington police officer guards the American Cancer Society's "prisoners" at Wal-Mart in Lexington, above. The prisoners were rounded up during the society's Jail and Bail, which began Tuesday. At right, Troy Beckham of Winnsboro calls family and friends as he tries to raise "bail" with pledges of money for his release. Beckham, who was turned in by his mom, raised more than $700. Bail ranged from $100 to $1,000.

Wade Abbott of Irmo, who spent more than two hours in the makeshift jail, said he was arrested at work during a sales meeting. "But I think it's a great cause," he said. "I don't really mind the hours out of my schedule." Prisoners raised more than $10,000 Tuesday. The fund-raising event continues through Friday at various locations. Anyone wishing to have someone arrested should call the American Cancer Society at 750-1790.

Photos by Ann State Therapists say school rapes leave many victims By BHAKTI LARRY HOUGH Staff Writer When a teenage girl is raped at school, she isn't the only one who needs help dealing with the aftermath. Other students need to understand what one therapist calls "the ultimate violation of one's self," whether or not they are emotionally affected, psychologists and social workers say. School officials, therapists agree, should take steps to help the other CAPITAL TODAY 0000 0000 0000 00000001 SIX BIOGRAPHERS OF prominent African-Americans will be appearing together at a University of South Carolina symposium today from 1 to 5 p.m. in room 250 of Gambrell Hall. The panelists a are Kenneth Manning, Genna Rae McNeil, Tony Martin, Waldo Martin, Wilson J.

Moses and Jacqueline A. Rouse. The symposium, sponsored by USC's African-American Scholar-Lecture series, is free and open to the public. THE NURTURING CENTER and the USC department of theater and speech will present "The Tempest," a benefit for the center, at 8 p.m. at shooting.

Assistant 11th Circuit Solicitor Ralph Kennedy told jurors during opening arguments that Marshall Amerson decided to silence his nephew by killing him. "You're only going to hear one side of the story during this trial," Kennedy said. "Ralph Amerson can't tell you anything because he's not with us anymore." But defense attorney William P. Walker Jr. of Lexington said Amerson shot his nephew in self-defense.

"Ralph Amerson was threatening him, and Marshall tried to get away from him," Walker said. "Marshall did not hunt his nephew down as the prosecution would have you believe." Walker said Ralph Amerson had a violent reputation and had threatened other people with knives on several occasions. "What I Marshall did he did to protect himself from Ralph Amerson," Walker said. The case is expected to go to the jury late today or Thursday. Re Retirement pay may go up for judges Jurists also could return to trial law By CINDI ROSS SCOPPE Staff Writer Being a judge in South Carolina is about to get a lot more attractive.

Not only could retired judges make about $15,000 more each year in retirement pay, but they'd get to go back to court and argue cases before their former judicial colleagues, under a bill passed Tuesday by the Senate. "I think the most important thing we can say about our judiciary is that we want it not only to remain independent but to appear independent," said Sen. Tom Pope, D-Newberry. "There is a brotherhood among judges that you can't explain, but everybody knows it exists." Pope supported the idea of increasing retirement pay. But he argued that letting judges practice law would "be a disincentive to justice" creating the appearance of a conflict of interest for the judges who remain on the bench and must rule on cases argued by their former colleagues.

"There is a brotherhood among judges that you can't explain, but everybody knows it exists." Sen. Tom Pope, Newberry Democrat Pope said that 10 of the 15 states that have considered letting retired judges practice law decided against it. "I think this debate has led us to more judicial brown-nosing than we've ever seen," Pope, an attorney, told the lawyer-dominated Senate Tuesday. His colleagues weren't particularly concerned about that charge. They voted 26-13 for the legislation, which already has passed in the House, although in a slightly different form.

The chambers will have to compromise cha the minor variations before the bill goes to the governor. See Judges, 5-B bAIL. bAIL. Two 13-year-olds have been charged in the case. Another rape, and an attempted rape, occurred in December 1988 at Alcorn Middle School, when three boys, ages 11, 12 and 13, followed two 11-year-old girls into the girls' restroom.

One girl escaped, but the boys were charged in the rape of the other. In the aftermath of the Crayton attack, Principal Ellen Cooper said See Rapes, 5-B Youths charged in slaying both said to have fired guns By TWILA DECKER Staff Writer In the Richland County jail sit two teenagers, both high school dropouts and both charged with murdering the same high school senior. But only one bullet from one gun killed 17-year-old Kenneth Abron Brown, a four-year varsity basketball player and ROTC officer at Airport High School. He was shot dead when a bullet struck his right temple shortly after midnight Sunday as he cruised near a downtown teenage nightspot on Hampton Street. Police say both Jamison Burgess of AA-3 Gonzales Gardens Apartments and Michael Andre Metts of 2616 Magnolia St.

are charged with murder because both are believed to have fired at the pickup truck in which Brown was a passenger. On Monday, Burgess, 18, turned Boats ignored signals MAR7831 MAR7831 how they can protect themselves, said Shelley McGeorge, a psychotherapist with Affiliated Family Services, a private counseling firm in Columbia. Counselors and therapists said that recent reports seem to indicate that rapes are on the increase in schools. The most recent attack in the Midlands occurred March 27, when three boys forced a 12-year-old girl into a boys' restroom at Crayton Middle School and sexually assaulted her. By FRANK HEFLIN Lowcountry Bureau SAVANNAH For four days, Nathan Neesmith waved and screamed at distant boats.

Other vessels that passed him and his three fishing companions last Wednesday night ignored their distress signals one of three flares they tossed nearly landed in one of the passing boats. An inflatable raft the Georgia men grabbed before their 34-foot boat sank soon met a similar fate, and the men drifted apart. Only Neesmith floating in a box in the Atlantic had been rescued by Tuesday. "He said it was by God's grace that he survived this," Rachel Rogers of Reidsville, said Tuesday at a Savannah hospital where her brother was in serious condition. "He wasn't responding at all well yesterday, but after we arrived this morning, he has gotten a lot better.

We all believe the others will be found." Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard widened its search to the south in an attempt to find Neesmith's brother, Billy Joe Neesmith, 23; his nephew, Keith Wilkes, 18; and a friend, Franklin Brantley, 23, all of Darien Nathan Neesmith, 31, found by a private boat 20 miles east of Hilton Head Island, S.C., Monday morning, See Boats, 5-B Birds teach prisoners joy in learning to heal students deal with the trauma. Although teenagers close to the victim usually identify the most with what happened, the rape can have an impact on other adolescents who know about it, said Tim Queen of Counseling and Readjustment Services. He is a psychotherapist who specializes in post-trauma experiences. Students must be taught about sexual assault, its consequences for the victim and the perpetrator and Longstreet Theatre.

The Nurturing Center is a non-profit agency that works with families experiencing child abuse and neglect. For ticket information, call Joan Fail at 771- 4160. A PANEL DISCUSSION informing parents about how to select the best child-care arrangements for their children will be held at 7 p.m. in Salon of the Ramada Inn in Richland Northeast. The program is sponsored by the S.C.

Day Care Association. For information, call 254-5635. THE MENTAL HEALTH Association in Mid-Carolina will present a workshop titled "The Violent Teen: How Do We Respond?" from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at Embassy Suites Hotel.

The workshop, open to the public, will be led by Dr. Richard J. Gelles, director of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of Rhode Island. SALLEY McINERNEY Kenny Kervin, a young man, leaned over the chicken-wire cage. He smiled at the agitated baby pigeon and said, "That's all right, Cecil, I love you." Kenny is a violent offender, incarcerated at Kirkland Correctional Institution for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, blackmail and extortion.

Cecil, of course, doesn't know all that. All the scruffy young bird is aware of is that Kenny is one of five inmates who has been feeding and caring for him since he was discovered about a month ago in a downtown Columbia building. The building had just been roofed and the mother bird could not return to feed her young. Cecil was rescued and turned over to a volunteer organization called Carolina Wildlife Care. The organization, in turn, sent Cecil out to Kirkland, where it has established a small, but encouraging wildlife-care program in the prison library.

"We were aware that animal therapy has been successful in many fields," said Ruth Alber, a founder of Carolina Wildlife Care, "but did not know if it would be so in this project. However, if it did not, the wildlife would still benefit." Since the pilot program began about a year ago, 122 birds have been cared for at Kirkland and 96 have been returned to the wild. "That is almost double the expected survival rate," Ms. Alber said. SALLEY McINERNEY Columnist Inmates who work in the program are trained in wildlife care.

Baby birds have to be fed every 20 to 30 minutes from dawn until dusk, and for the past year, one corner of the Kirkland library has remained a busy place throughout each day. "(The inmates) find a real sense of self-esteem working with the ani- himself in and handed over a caliber handgun he said he used to fire three shots at the truck. Metts' attorney, Jack Swerling, claims that his client wasn't around when the shooting took place. Metts, 17, was arrested about 5:30 a.m. Sunday at his home.

"If two people go together to commit an offense, they both may be held responsible for any action that results from it," said Lt. Steve Conley, who has handed the case over to the 5th Circuit Solicitor's office for review. Solicitor James Anders said that if there's no evidence to prove they acted together to shoot at the truck, only one will be charged with murder. The other may be charged with assault and battery with intent to kill. He said he would decide within the See Youths, 5-B mals," said Troy McLaughlin, the Kirkland librarian.

"Some of these guys have not been able to be successful in anything else they've ever done." Kervin is responsible for recruiting and scheduling other inmate volunteers. Within the prison, he is the program caretaker. See Wildlife, 5-B.