A 19-year-old and three juveniles were arrested yesterday on charges of murdering Tiffany Artina Fouts, 15, a Joppatowne High School student who authorities said was raped at a party Nov. 11 before dying in a nearby woods of alcohol intoxication and exposure.
The youngest of the suspects, a 14-year-boy whose townhouse on Charlestown Drive in Edgewood was the site of the party, was charged as a juvenile with second-degree murder.
The others, all from Edgewood, were charged as adults in indictments returned Thursday by a Harford County grand jury. They were identified as:
* Larry Donte Washington, 19, who also lives at the home in the 1400 block of Charlestown Drive, charged with second-degree murder. Mr. Washington, who is not related to the 14-year-old, was being held in lieu of $75,000 bond.
* Ricky Shamar Washington, 15, of the 800 block of Williamsburg Court, charged with first-degree murder and second-degree rape. Ricky Washington, who is not related to Larry Washington, was held without bond.
* Lewis Dunn Jr., 16, of the 600 block of Shelter Cove Road, charged with second-degree murder. His bond was set at $75,000.
The 14-year-old, Larry Washington and Ricky Washington were arrested and brought in handcuffs to the sheriff's office yesterday morning. The 14-year-old's head was covered with his green jacket. Mr. Dunn turned himself in yesterday afternoon.
While the older suspects were held at the county detention center, the 14-year-old was sent to the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School in Baltimore County.
Authorities said no charge was lodged against the boy's mother, who was home at the time but said she was unaware of the party, drinking and sexual activity going on in the basement that Saturday night.
"All of the parents of these boys have been very cooperative with the investigators," said Sgt. Edward Hopkins, a spokesman for the Harford County sheriff's office.
The young people -- including another 15-year-old girl -- all consumed alcohol during the party, authorities said. Autopsy results on the level of alcohol in Miss Fouts' blood have not been made public.
Sergeant Hopkins said police hope the arrests warn "teens and their parents about the dangers of alcohol."
"This is a tragedy which could have been avoided if the youths had not been drinking," he said. "Tiffany became vulnerable to sexual assault because she was drinking."
The sheriff's office said investigators believe that Miss Fouts was carried unconscious from the house and left in a narrow strip of woods between the house and her family's trailer home in the 600 block of Red Oak Ave.
"All of the boys participated to some degree in taking her outside," Sergeant Hopkins said.
Temperatures dropped to freezing that night as a wintry storm hit the area, and Miss Fouts' partly clad body was found the next morning by a neighbor.
Residents of the close-knit community are outraged by the incident, said Nancy Jacobs, who lives next to the house where the party took place.
"Edgewood is an outstanding community, very family-oriented, and we are all shocked at what has happened," she said of the racially diverse, middle-class community. "We want justice for Tiffany."
Three of the juveniles -- Ricky Washington, the 14-year-old boy and the other 15-year-old girl, who was not charged in the case -- were students with Miss Fouts at Joppatowne High.
Donald R. Morrison, a Harford schools spokesman, said Mr. Dunn is not a county public school student.
The first-degree murder charge in this case carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the second-degree offense has a maximum of 30 years. The top penalty for second-degree rape -- intercourse with a person who is mentally incapacitated or helpless -- is 20 years, said Mark Nelson, an assistant state's attorney.
