Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993 TAG: 9301050132
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
14 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING
A 23-year-old Christiansburg man shot another man in the back at the Blacksburg Community Center because he panicked after a confrontation following a pick-up basketball game, the defendant told Circuit Judge Kenneth Devore on Monday.Marshall E. Williamson III, 23, testified at his sentencing hearing Monday - the first time he has spoken in court about the shooting last February of Richard Adams, 20, of Christiansburg.
Adams was shot in the hand and in the back by Williamson after the two opposed each other in a basketball game at the community center.
Adams spent six days in Montgomery Regional Hospital and missed more than seven weeks of work.
Williamson had pleaded guilty to malicious wounding in November. Monday, Devore sentenced him to serve 12 years of a 15-year sentence on that charge, as well as two years for using a firearm to commit a felony.
Williamson already is serving eight years on a sentence for possessing crack cocaine with intent to distribute.
Williamson testified Monday that he carried a gun for protection because of threats from people concerned he would cooperate with police after being arrested on the drug charges.
"I wasn't a convicted felon. It's my constitutional right to bear arms," Williamson testified Monday.
Williamson told Devore he didn't remember shooting Adams. He had confronted him because he believed he had been heavily fouled during the game, he said.
"I pulled out the gun from my right pocket . . . and everything just went crazy," Williamson said.
"I don't even remember shooting at all. Everything just went blank."
Williamson said he came to his senses as he was standing over Adams, saw he was bleeding and heard him say "Don't shoot me no more."
Adams had testified in a November hearing that the two men began pushing and shoving each other, and Adams then saw Williamson pull something out of his pocket. He saw a flash and put his hands up. "I realized that I'd been shot [in the hand] and my reflex was to turn and run."
Adams ran about three steps and was shot in the back, he testified. He continued to run until he slipped and fell on a muddy bank.
After Williamson turned away, Adams got up and chased him back to the parking lot and yelled to other witnesses the license number of the car in which Williamson left the center, Adams testified in November.
One of Adams' friends had slashed a tire on the car, which was driven by Williamson's girlfriend, whom he has since married. Police later arrested Williamson after pulling over the car in Christiansburg.
Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney, referred to Williamson's statement to police the night of the shooting where he said it didn't bother him to shoot Adams in the back. He said he felt they would have done the same to him.
"Here I am, a black man, and four people tried to jump on me and they tried to make it a big deal," because a man was shot, Williamson testified Monday.
Williamson told Schwab that "throughout my whole life, I've had a lot of bad experiences with people that are a different color than myself."
Greg Campbell, Williamson's attorney, said Williamson's admission of carrying a gun everywhere, even to church was "scary to all of us," but understandable.
There's no rational reason for shooting Adams, especially a second time in the back, but his client was panicked, Campbell said.
It was an impulsive act by a man upset with racial inequalities, Campbell said.
"This case isn't about racism," Schwab countered. "it's about a basketball game."
Williamson walked off the court and followed Adams and three of his friends to their truck, Schwab said.
"He was not scared of racism when he followed four white men to a vehicle," Scwab said. "He instigated it. It was not something that was spontaneous."
Schwab asked Devore to consider sentencing Williamson to the maximum 20 years for the shooting to serve as both retribution and a deterrent.
"Drug dealers with guns, senseless shootings in public places . . . are so common they don't even make the news anymore," in many cities, the prosecutor said.
"Fortunately, in this jurisdiction, they are not common."
Schwab said the public has "as much right not to be shot by drug dealers that carry guns as drug dealers think they have a constitutional right to bear arms."
Before sentencing Williamson, Devore told him he had committed "a vicious and cowardly act."
While Williamson had testified to his concerns about racism against him, Devore said Williamson also was guilty of racism.
"You just don't like white people," the judge said. ". . . We're all God's people."