A Northampton County judge refused to alter his 29- to 58-year state prison sentence for a Tunkhannock, Pa., man convicted of attempted homicide in a 2007 stabbing outside a Bethlehem night club.

Randy Carter Jr., 29, asked Judge Anthony Beltrami to reconsider the sentence he handed down after a jury convicted Carter of stabbing Michael Parker and another man outside Casa Blanca nightclub. Four different witnesses testified they saw Carter and Antoine Williams attack Parker, who lost his eye in the vicious assault. As he and Williams attempted to get away, they crashed into a police cruiser and were arrested. Carter was too drunk to recall the fight at the time, police said.

At his trial, Carter argued defense attorney Mark Refowich was ineffective, and he revived those complaints after his sentencing. Among his complaints, Carter said Refowich did not follow up on blood spatter or DNA evidence that might have proven him innocent. He also failed to follow up on the theory that another man named Waylon "Dice" Clark was the actual stabber, Carter said.

Beltrami, however, dismissed all of the arguments in a 42-page ruling released this morning. Carter's claims either failed to reach the parameters created under the law or were simply not credible, according to the ruling.

Carter called Tina Williams and Victor Streety, the mother and brother of his co-defendant, to testify, and they claimed Clark admitted in Tina Williams' kitchen to stabbing Parker. They passed the information to Brett Riegel, Antoine Williams' attorney, but the information never reached Refowich, according to the Beltrami's ruling. Carter also claimed he told Refowich that someone else had admitted to the crime but did not know Clark's real name despite knowing him for years.

In his ruling, Beltrami said he didn't believe Tina Williams or Streety's testimony. He also wrote that Carter's own testimony at his trial didn't fit with the new story. At trial, Carter testified the third person with them went by the name Tyson, D. or T. If he had known Clark for years, surely Carter would have known his actual name or brought it up when he complained about other matters, Beltrami reasoned.

"Such a stark inconsistency over such a basic but critical fact drastically undermined the credibility of the defendant's entire... testimony," Beltrami wrote.

Police in Florida have charged Carter with the 2005 murder of 25-year-old Austin Paine. The website for the Brevard County (Fla.) Clerk of Courts indicates he is scheduled to appear in court there Jan. 4. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/beth...dge_refus.html


Man Charged In Austin Paine’s 2005 Murder

On September 23, 2005, Florida surfer Austin Paine, 25, was gunned down in the side yard of his home after armed men in hoods broke into his house in a burglary attempt. It’s taken almost five years, but Brevard County has finally filed charged against Jarod Stanley Parrish, 26, according to a story in Florida Today.

An arrest report says Parrish participated in the homicide “by planning the event” with the others at his own Indialantic home “shortly before the armed burglary and murder took place.” The report says Parrish specifically targeted Paine. . . Investigators said Randy Carter Jr., 26, of Cocoa, and Anthony Williams, 30, of Tobyhanna, Pa., broke through a sliding glass door to a bedroom in Paine’s Plumosa Way home. The two, armed with pistols, beat Paine before he fled out the shattered glass door. Carter and Williams pursued Paine and shot him to death near the backyard gate.

Police say the robbery was motivated by “drugs and money.”

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