Facing 20 years in slayings, Camden teen cries for 'Mommy'

Plywood covered the windows and doors of 559 Berkley St. in Camden yesterday, but a gaping hole remains in the small back yard and in the lives of nearly everyone involved in the ghoulish murders there.

That hole is where the bodies of Muriah Ashley Huff, an 18-year-old cosmetology student from Cinnaminson, and her boyfriend, Michael Hawkins, 23, of Mount Holly, were hastily dumped after a mob of young, Lueders Park Piru Bloods tortured and killed Hawkins in the home on Feb. 22 over a gang dispute. Huff was killed because she was with him.

The youngest defendant, 14-year-old Shatara "Feisty Ru" Carter, was sentenced yesterday for her role in Huff's death and a tearful prosecutor couldn't conceal the toll the case has taken on her.

The victim "was beaten, she was stabbed, she was strangled and she was suffocated," said Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Mary Alison Albright, her voice wavering with emotion as she recounted Huff's long death.

No one came to say goodbye to Carter until her mother, fresh out of jail for allegedly hitting another teen daughter with an ashtray, hurried into the courtroom moments before a judge sentenced her daughter to the maximum 20 years for aggravated manslaughter.

"Mommy!" Carter sobbed, craning her neck to look at her mother. "That's my mommy!"

Superior Court Judge Irvin J. Snyder said no apologies, no psychiatric reports, and no claims of youthful ignorance could explain the hole in Carter's conscience during that hellish day. Snyder described the killing as "pure evil" and denied a defense request for a shorter sentence.

"I'm not taking one minute, one second, off this sentence," he said.

More than a dozen of Huff's relative's attended and some spoke about the hole Carter cut from their hearts when she helped kill the bubbly, churchgoing student who dreamed of owning a salon and had a knack for making things "beautiful."

"I told her I would buy her a prom dress but instead I had to buy something for her to wear at her funeral," said Camille Williams, a cousin.

Huff's grandmother, Sylvia Huff, said she raised Muriah since she was an infant and "thanked God for all the years" that followed. Huff and other family members said they hoped Carter would get help and "find God" - in prison.

"She might have a family who corresponds with her and comes to visit her there," Sylvia Huff said. "I have to stand at a grave."

But Carter's attorney, Kevin Lewis, said her troubled family was one reason the teen sought acceptance in a gang.

"If she had had that kind of family, she wouldn't be here today," Lewis said, motioning to Huff's family.

Neighbors on Berkley Street said that chaos reigned in the red-brick rowhouse for months before the murders and that Carter's mother, Arnetta "Peanut" Welch, let the home become a haven for young, violent gang members.

"She wanted to be their friend more than their mother," a neighbor who asked not to be identified said yesterday.

In court yesterday, Snyder said Welch initially protested when the mob, including her 19-year-old son, Dennis Welch, turned on Hawkins and Huff inside her home. Snyder said Carter and the other defendants then locked Arnetta Welch in a bedroom. A neighbor said Huff had been doing Welch's hair that day before she was killed.

A law-enforcement source said Welch may have helped the defendants clean up the home and remove evidence. She has not been charged, however.

She was released from prison Wednesday, after pleading guilty to abuse and neglect in relation to a July 11 incident in which she allegedly punched and choked her 16-year-old daughter and hit the teen with an ashtray.

Nine others including Dennis Welch are charged in the Berkley Street murders and awaiting presentation to the grand jury.