Louisiana child may have been burned alive
01:27 PM CDT on Monday, July 3, 2006
Associated Press
COUSHATTA -- Investigators believe a kidnapped 5-year-old boy was alive when he was set on fire in an abandoned house in northwestern Louisiana's Red River Parish.
"We're presuming that. We're pretty sure," Sheriff Johnny Ray Norman said Monday.
Terrence Carter, who was arrested in connection with the Saturday kidnapping and slaying of Corinthian Houston, "has pretty well confessed to it," the sheriff said.
Corinthian was found tied to a leather chair. Norman said an electrical cord was wrapped around the child's neck, but he was not believed to have been strangled.
"That wasn't the cause of death. It wasn't around his neck tight enough," Norman said, adding that an autopsy was pending.
Carter, 26, of the Smith community near Coushatta, was arrested after Houston's body was found about 3:30 a.m. Sunday. The child was the son of Pamela Fisher and Marcus Houston, both of Natchitoches.
Natchitoches police say Carter snatched Corinthian from his mother's residence in Carver Alley in Natchitoches about 9 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses told police that Terrence Carter and a co-worker, George Herring III, age unknown, of Coushatta, drove away in a Dodge Caravan.
Warrants charging both men with the alleged kidnapping were issued, Natchitoches police Lt. Chris Stanfield said. Herring was not immediately booked with murder.
"Right now, all they can tell he did was furnish a vehicle used for the kidnapping. We can't tie him to the murder," Norman said.
Norman said investigators determined that the abduction and killing arose from a disagreement between Carter and Fisher, who had a "boyfriend-girlfriend" relationship.
"It's a useless deal -- just a vendetta, I guess you'd call it," Norman said. "He was trying to get back at his girlfriend."
Carter and Herring initially were booked with kidnapping at the Red River Parish Jail on Sunday. Carter was booked with one count of first-degree murder Sunday afternoon.
Red River Parish District Attorney Bill Jones said that while the case would seem to fit the criteria for first-degree murder -- the victim is well under the age of 12 and kidnapping provides an aggravating circumstance, what will happen depends on more investigation.
"It's way too soon to know yet if this is going to be prosecuted as capital murder, primarily because I don't know enough of the facts right now."
Terrence Carter lived with his mother, Irma Carter, whose house is next door to the abandoned structure in which the child's body was found. The Carter family is originally from Detroit, Mich., but moved to Coushatta about six or seven years ago.
Byron Carter, a brother of Terrence Carter, said it was their mother who called police to report that Corinthian's body was inside the house. Another brother, Jeffery Carter, found the body.
Terrence Carter was being held without bond and in isolation, Norman said, with his arraignment likely to be held Wednesday due to the Independence Day holiday.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
