New Kent undecided about slaying suspect held in Fla.

LANEXA -- A year after he allegedly gunned down a Williamsburg teenager in possible self-defense, fled his rental home here in New Kent County, and then surrendered to federal agents in Alabama, John Steven Carter is still off the radar of the county prosecutor.

"I just haven't decided yet what we are going to do," said C. Linwood Gregory, New Kent's commonwealth's attorney, when asked about the high-profile case recently.

Those might seem like odd words to describe the fate of a man who could claim the title of the still-rural county's most notorious criminal.

Carter, though, isn't going anywhere anytime soon. He started serving a 10-year sentence in August on federal drug and gun charges brought in Florida in 2005.

. . .

A year ago in New Kent, Carter was using the alias of a dead man convicted of manslaughter. In reality, he was already a hardened criminal on the run from the Florida case.

Years earlier, Carter and the man whose alias he later used had conspired to kill a Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control officer using an M-16 machine gun stolen from Fort Eustis.

"Carter was a master at staying out of sight and out of mind; he was able to keep a very low profile and was very hard to detect," said the now-retired ABC officer, David Altman, who asked that his whereabouts not be disclosed.

Altman and other agents were targeted because they had arrested Carter's wife on drug charges. The hit, revealed by an informer, was to take place as the agents walked from a parking lot into the New Kent County Courthouse.

Somehow, Carter avoided detection in recent years by New Kent authorities despite that past and outstanding charges in Florida; he had pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in the widely publicized shooting plot and received a five-year sentence.

Altman understands how people can disappear. The slaying plot occurred in 1982.

"People come and go, people forget," he said.

But it riles Altman that Carter would return to New Kent and end up allegedly killing a teenager a year ago and continue running drugs. Altman wouldn't comment directly on his feelings about whether Carter should be prosecuted in Virginia.

. . .

Christopher L. Greene, 18, died the night of Oct.14 last year. His body was found hidden behind the home Carter rented in Lanexa.

Greene and three other teens from the Williamsburg area had traveled the 20 miles to Carter's home to rob him of drugs and guns, according to court proceedings in their cases. Greene, his accomplices told police, was shot by Carter when Greene tried to bust through Carter's back door.

A week later, New Kent authorities realized that the man they thought was named William J. Benton Jr. was in reality John Steven Carter. By then he was long gone, leaving behind two bright-red vintage Cadillacs.

And authorities discovered that Carter was wanted in Florida on federal charges of possessing a weapon and growing marijuana. He had a growing facility in a shed near his ramshackle home in the Panhandle town of Westville, where he lived with his new wife and daughter.

Carter was captured in southern Alabama in March, begging that members of a federal fugitive task force, assisted by a helicopter, not shoot him. He even called 911.

At age 57 and in frail health, Carter is locked up in the Jackson County Jail in Marianna, Fla., awaiting transit to a federal facility. He pleaded guilty in May to the federal marijuana and drug charges from 2005 and was sentenced in August to 10 years in prison.

. . .

Woodrow C. Hockaday made a startling discovery when police turned the empty rental property where Carter lived back to him.

The house wasn't so empty after all.

A section of the second story was still a functioning marijuana-production operation, complete with grow lights and a watering system. It was all hidden behind a false wall that police and search dogs had missed.

Investigators rolled back to the home 20 yards off U.S. 60 and found more than 100 plants valued at about $1 million.

"The house is still empty," Hockaday said. He can't rent the property again because sections of the second floor "are rotted out by the water that was up there. It's not safe. The sheetrock is all rotted out, too."

And like many New Kent residents, Hockaday figures Carter will never come back for trial.

"He was in such poor health," Hockaday said, recalling that the refrigerator in Carter's home was full of medications for diabetes.

Altman is still angry.

"Carter was clearly still the center of criminal activity," he said. "He had a gun because he was protecting his marijuana operation. Those boys [from Williamsburg] never would have been up there if it weren't for the drugs."

To date, Carter's most serious outstanding charge in New Kent is for improperly disposing of a body.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .