Karter, Nigel, and Gator entered the school building about 7:30 a.m. Karter said the three of them went in through the main corridor, looked around, and saw Shawn and his friends at the other end of the hallway, who did not notice them. Nigel led the way as he, Karter, and Gator headed upstairs to find their friends in the school; they wanted to find out what was churning in the rumor mill about a possible fight. Karter passed a couple of students who knew him; he took out his metal rod and brandished it, bragging about what he would do if anyone tried to jump his boy. At this point, Karter felt a kind of energy from showing off, acting as if he was accustomed to flaunting a weapon.
It was Karter who saw them first, coming down the hall, heading straight for Nigel. He recognized three faces: Shawn Pina, Duane Silva, and Jason Robinson. Duane was black, and over six feet tall; Karter wrote in 2008 that “he hadn’t been there the night before but he was Shawn’s boy and we knew he’d be coming.” He had seen Duane a few weeks earlier, when he was at the Stop and Shop in New Bedford’s South End where Gator worked. After Gator finished his shift, they gave Duane a ride home, along with Shawn. Duane joked about wanting to steal Gator’s car stereo. Jason, a thin, white, gangly basketball player, was a friend of Shawn’s and had, for a short time, been a student at the Voke. Karter felt that Jason was probably tagging along to watch Nigel get a beating.
There was a lot of commotion in the hallway as the two groups headed toward one another. Diane Tretton, an English teacher at the school, saw Duane and Jason walk purposefully past her classroom.32 They did not say hello, which was unusual, considering they had been her students. She attempted to follow the boys, but she could not manage to stay behind them as students began to fill the hallway to see what was going on.
Karter had promised himself that if it wasn’t a fair, one-on-one fight, he would jump in. But when Duane and Shawn passed in front of him and he realized they were heading for Nigel, he—and Gator—froze. They watched, paralyzed, as Duane made a few nasty comments and threw a punch, knocking Nigel to the floor. Karter said that Shawn then started kicking Nigel. Nigel tried to get up, but Shawn threw him against a locker while Jason cheered him on.
At this point, about twenty-five to thirty students had crowded into the hallway.33 Diane Tretton, trying to stop the fight, ran up to Duane and put her hands against his chest, yelling, “Duane, you have to stop! You have to stop!”34 He pushed her aside and she ducked into the teachers’ lunchroom to call for help on the intercom. Lisa DeCuna, another teacher, hearing her colleague’s voice, rushed into the hall. She saw that Nigel was bleeding and tried to grab Shawn, who was kicking Nigel repeatedly, by the shirt.35 Gator then ran over, pulled Nigel up, and yelled at Karter to do something. But Karter could do nothing. More teachers appeared and tried to stop the fight. Shawn and Duane darted one way down the hall, while Gator, Nigel, and Karter went in another direction. The principal appeared, and teachers told him about the fight; he quickly rounded up Shawn and Duane and sent them to his office.36
Karter was pushing and shoving people, furious and ashamed for not standing up for Nigel, as he and the other two boys ran out of the building. Nigel’s nose and lip were bleeding, and Karter thought Nigel had broken his elbow. Karter belted a mailbox as they headed for the car;37 he heard Gator yell at the crossing guard to get out of his “fucking” way or he would run her down. In a whirlwind, the three boys sped away.38 They headed to Fairhaven to get Shad, whom they felt would know what to do. For Karter, it was all about defending a friend, and he had failed.
At Shad’s house, Nigel went inside to wash off the blood. Shad quickly went to the car and said he could not believe they had allowed this to happen, meaning that they had let Shawn and his friends beat up Nigel without even taking a swing. Karter and Gator sat sheepishly. Neither could explain why they had been so afraid. They begged Shad to go back to the school with them to help make things right, but Shad refused. He had plans; the fight was theirs to finish. He told them to wait until after school.
The boys decided not to wait until the end of the school day—they would return to Dartmouth immediately. But a one-on-one, “fair” fight was no longer possible. Instead, Nigel and Gator would beat down Shawn and Duane, and Karter would keep anyone from interfering, and make certain they could all escape. They would bring Gator’s baseball bat and billy club, just to be sure. And, of course, Karter had his knife.
The first classes of the day were about to begin at Dartmouth High. James “Woody” Murphy, or Mr. Murphy to his freshmen American government class, was discussing the recent tragedies in Bosnia.39 Murphy was a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and a former US Marine who had taught and coached sports for twenty-five years; he had been at Dartmouth for seven.40 He loved to teach and had a reputation for investing himself in the classroom with the kind of humor and grit kids respond to.41 He had already heard about the early-morning fight and noticed that two of his students were missing from S57, his social studies room: Shawn Pina and Nigel Thomas.
Shortly after 8:15 a.m., Shawn sat waiting outside the principal’s office.42 Minutes before, he and Duane had been suspended for three days. Duane had already left the school grounds, but Shawn was still waiting to be picked up when from the window he saw two boys running toward the school. He recognized Gator and Nigel, and immediately told one of Principal King’s secretaries.43 She told King that “intruders” had entered the school.44
Exactly what was said over the next fifteen minutes was disputed during the public hearings and in the press; there is an element of “he said, she said” to all of it. Karter’s sentence was ultimately based not only on the facts of the case, but also on these stories, told in a time of shock by a community in crisis and by media outlets looking for news in a year of escalating school violence. His resulting punishment hardly makes sense unless seen in this context.
The three boys came through the same front entrance as they had earlier and walked down the same main corridor. Karter’s knife was open in his pocket; he still had the pipe as well. Nigel had the billy club, while Gator carried his metal bat and a double-edged knife; he was full of bravado, clanging the metal against the floor as he walked.
Jane Carreiro, a foreign-language teacher, had just come out of a classroom and was heading to the main office with her attendance sheet when she saw the trio and hurried behind them, thinking they were late for school.45 Then she heard the clanging of the bat and called out, “Boys, what are you doing here? State your business.” They turned to face her, and Gator thumped the bat on the floor and said, “Go to hell.”46 The three boys then charged up the stairs. Carreiro turned and ran to the main office.
In Karter’s recollection, the boys quickly made their way down the white-walled corridor and up the stairs, Nigel in the lead. They were heading to Nigel’s American government classroom, where they thought Shawn would be. When they reached room S57, Karter said he felt sick and was sure he would throw up. They had planned to go into the room in mid-lesson, but now they all realized their plan was ridiculous. They were unsure what to do. Karter said that Nigel suggested he jump Shawn when he came out of class. Suddenly, at the end of the hallway, Vice Principal Porter appeared. Gator said he couldn’t wait and asked Nigel and Karter if they were ready. Karter replied with some version of “Gator, I don’t want to do this, but I won’t leave you alone.”47 Gator announced he was going in. As if on autopilot, Karter watched from the doorway as his friend walked into the classroom.
Things moved so quickly that it was hard for anyone to comprehend the sequence of events. The following details spilled out at the trial and from Karter’s letters:
Gator, bat in hand, looked around the room and asked aloud, “Where’s Shawn Pina?”48
Mr. Murphy saw the bat and began unraveling with a “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s with the bat?”49 He immediately went after Gator.
Nigel, almost tucked inside his black cap, backed away from the action and moved behind Karter, who was standing at the threshold of the room, watching as Jason Robinson, sitting in the