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StarNewsOnline.com
By Ken Little, Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 3, 2004 at 12:30 a.m.
Kyle Berry was taken to at least 17 doctors during his teenage years and placed in a succession of schools, his mother said Tuesday.
Along the way, Mr. Berry was diagnosed as being bipolar, having attention deficit disorder and was prescribed a variety of powerful drugs that included lithium, Paxil and Dexedrine, Nancy Berry testified during her son’s re-sentencing hearing in New Hanover Superior Court.
Through testimony Tuesday, defense lawyers sought to put a human face on the troubled life of Mr. Berry, who was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder in the November 1998 beating and stabbing death of 16-year-old Theresa Fetter.
A jury will decide this week if Mr. Berry will be sentenced for the second time to die or spend life in prison without parole.
The hearing was prompted by an appeal involving sentencing instructions during the 2001 trial.
Miss Fetter’s stabbed and beaten body was found behind a day care center in a wooded area east of College Road at South 17th Street.
Prosecution testimony shows three men beat Miss Fetter to death with metal pipes while Mr. Berry stabbed her repeatedly in the head and hands before leaving the teenager’s body under a pile of pine straw.
The three men – Bobby Autry, Jon Malonee and Josh Whitney, are all serving prison terms ranging from 16 to 32 years for their part in the killing.
Much of the same evidence from the first trial has been presented by the prosecution and defense during three days of testimony. During the 2001 trial, defense lawyers introduced evidence that Mr. Berry was mentally ill, retarded, suffered from a head injury and was abused as a child.
By Charles Montaldo, Crime Expert
Kyle Berry was sentenced to death for his involvement in the murder of 16-year-old Theresa Fetter. Testimony indicates that Ms. Fetter was the girlfriend of Bobby Autry and had become a threat when she witnessed another murder. When Autry decided to end the relationship with Ms. Fetter, he and Josh Whitney, Jon Malonee and Kyle Berry decided to murder her.
On November 5, 1998, the four men led Ms. Fetter into the woods.