Dontay

Martin Parker testified that he had been bored, sitting on a bench waiting for his friends Dontay Carter and Clarence Woodward to return from the parking garage at the Harbor Park Cinema. Carter, who didn't own a car, then pulled up in a station wagon with Mr. Woodward and another man in the back seat, Mr. Parker recalled.Taking the stand yesterday in the eighth day of Carter's murder trial in Baltimore Circuit Court, Mr. Parker said he got into the car and noticed the man was covered by a coat.

Dontay Carter forged slaying victim Vitalis V. Pilius' signature on hotel, store and credit card receipts, a state police handwriting expert testified yesterday.Taking the witness stand in the sixth day of the East Baltimore teen-ager's murder trial, forensic document examiner Gary Girton said his analysis showed Carter was the person who signed the slain Catonsville man's name on seven documents. Those documents included an application for a replacement driver's license, a receipt for a rental car and receipts for more than $2,400 in clothing and stereo equipment.

The color photograph showed a close-up of Vitalis V. Pilius' bloody, soot-covered, lifeless face. The soot, said Baltimore homicide Detective Gary Childs, apparently came from being dragged across the floor of the burned-out rowhouse at 2035 Mura St.When Dontay Carter's murder trial began last week in Baltimore Circuit Court, prosecutor Vickie L. Wash warned the jurors they could expect to see some brutal, graphic evidence. Yesterday, when they did, one juror wiped tears from her eyes and shook her head.

One day after Vitalis V. Pilius was last seen alive, Dontay Carter told a friend that he had abducted and beat a man and dumped the body in a basement, according to testimony yesterday in the East Baltimore teen-ager's murder trial.The friend, a 16-year-old boy, said Carter made the claim Feb. 12 in a room at the Marriott Inner Harbor hotel. "He said they took the man, took the body around Mura and Chester, and he forced the man in an old house and he hit the man over the head with a pipe.

A former MVA clerk said yesterday she felt sorry for Dontay Carter when she issued him a fraudulent driver's license in slaying victim Vitalis V. Pilius' name."

A police cruiser double-parked on Calvert Street with emergency lights flashing marked the arrival of widow Aldona Pilius for yesterday's start of Dontay Carter's murder trial.Murder cases are tried nearly every day in Baltimore Circuit Court. But the sight of the victim's wife, friends and relatives emerging from a police car outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse was just one sign that this one is hardly routine.Prosecutors, defense lawyers, reporters and curious court-watchers squeezed into Judge John N. Prevas' courtroom for the first trial in a February crime spree that left citizens looking over their shoulders while in downtown parking garages.

Dontay Carter, an East Baltimore teen-ager accused of murder and kidnapping in a February crime spree, was hauled into court yesterday and ordered to provide samples of his handwriting.Preparing for an Oct. 2 trial date for Carter and three co-defendants, prosecutors will compare the samples obtained yesterday with what they believe are the forged signatures of slaying victim Vitalis V. Pilius.Carter had faced a contempt-of-court charge after refusing to cooperate with a state police handwriting specialist when taken to the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit Aug. 6.Handcuffed and shackled, and wearing tan pants and a floral-print shirt, Carter, 19, was led yesterday up a flight of stairs into the jury room adjacent to Baltimore Circuit Judge John N. Prevas' courtroom.

At worst, Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer's department may have bent the law when it awarded a $35,000 contract to the wife of his friend without competitive bidding. At best, Mr. Lighthizer reinforced his image as a politician with a penchant for cronyism.The former Anne Arundel County executive has been good to his friends since his appointment as MDOT secretary two years ago, hiring seven former county government colleagues.Now, he faces an ethics investigation for granting a no-bid contract to a firm owned by the wife of Francis J. "Zeke" Zylwitis, his former Anne Arundel criminal justice and corrections aide.

Four state troopers have been disciplined mildly for failing to "go a step further" to arrest Dontay Carter, 18, who allegedly identified himself twice by showing the doctored driver's license of a 37-year-old Catonsville man he is accused of killing.One of the troopers, who was given a two-day suspension without pay for neglect of duty, has requested an administrative hearing, state Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services Bishop L. Robinson said yesterday.Mr. Robinson said another trooper was ordered to undergo guidance and counseling; another to undergo remedial training.

Four state troopers face disciplinary charges for failing to detain a teen-ager accused of killing a Catonsville man and using the victim's doctored driver's license to trick the troopers into releasing him, according to Leonard A. Sipes, Jr., a spokesman for state's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.Mr. Sipes confirmed that disciplinary action is being considered, but declined to discuss details of an internal state police investigation.Sources said the disciplinary action is recommended by investigators who examined how Dontay Carter, 18, was able dupe the troopers on two occasions.