THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995 TAG: 9512260031
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANGELITA PLEMMER, LISE OLSEN AND LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 275 lines
Dozens of drivers watched in horror as 22-year-old Efrem D. Garner lay dying in the Downtown Tunnel in April.
Garner, shot in the chest, fell halfway out of a dark green 1992 Lexus - halting rush-hour traffic.
Eleven video cameras captured images of two suspects, who jumped from the car and ran toward Portsmouth.
But police could not make charges stick against the one man they arrested a week later - Shawnta Ward.
Capital murder, armed robbery and abduction charges were dismissed. The quality of the video was poor, the murder weapon was never found and witnesses could not identify Ward as the gunman.
Ward, 19, is a part of what the FBI says is a revolving-door criminal justice system in Portsmouth - a system that allows young, violent criminals to remain free to commit crimes again.
Seven months after Garner was slain, police charge, Ward gunned down 20-year-old Michael McCormick.
A masked, hooded gunman entered TJ's Restaurant on Nov. 17 and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing McCormick, who was sitting with four other patrons at a table playing dominos.
Ward is now in jail on a $1 million bond.
During an unprecedented year of violence in Portsmouth, in which a record 37 people were slain, federal authorities have cited a problem of a low bonds and charges that don't hold up, witness intimidation and a pattern of repeat offenders.
Of the 26 people arrested for murder this year in Portsmouth through Dec. 22, at least 18 had prior arrests for violent crimes, though several avoided prosecution. Of the other identified suspects: One is a fugitive, and one was killed.
Three of the suspects - including Ward - have been linked to other killings. One, Keith Columbus, has been indicted in a 1994 murder. Another, Nathaniel Richardson, was acquitted in 1994 of a previous slaying.
Of those arrested, 15 - more than half - have been released from Portsmouth's custody, according to a review of court and jail records by The Virginian-Pilot.
Three of those suspects - including Ward - have seen their murder charges dropped or not prosecuted.
One suspect is being held in the Norfolk City Jail on other charges. Eleven others posted bond, according to court and jail records. However, The Virginian-Pilot made numerous attempts to verify the whereabouts of suspects and found that some court records did not accurately reflect bond amounts and jail status.
Violent criminal history, job history and family information are among the factors considered during a bond hearing. Evidence of stability usually helps a suspect, while a history of violence can hurt. Bonds are issued to ensure that the suspect appears in court.
Those suspects with prior violent arrests had bail set from $10,000 to $600,000, according to court and jail records. That means suspects would put up $1,000 to $60,000, since only 10 percent of the bail is required by most bondsmen.
Magistrates usually decide whether a suspect is locked up after an arrest. While their powers are limited, magistrates can make these crucial decisions without a prosecutor being present to argue on behalf of the public. A suspect can call a lawyer.
Commonwealth's Attorney Martin Bullock said in an interview that these initial bonds are often set too low, particularly for repeat offenders.
``Generally, that's the problem,'' Bullock said. ``We look at the criminal history in a more serious light than the magistrate does.
``The magistrate doesn't have to answer to the public,'' he added. ``We do.''
Once a magistrate - who is appointed by judges - sets bond, it can be appealed before a judge. But, Bullock said, it's difficult to get a judge to revoke or alter the bond.
``The judge is going to ask, what information do you have that the magistrate didn't have?'' he said. ``We make those motions, attempts to raise bond, but the decision is ultimately made by the court.''
Prosecutors point out that the revolving door is kept moving, in part, by an old rule of law. While many of the suspects have a history of arrests for violent crimes, that evidence is inadmissible unless there is a conviction.
Ward, for example, has faced robbery charges at least three times in the last two years, but he has not been convicted. In one robbery case, he was released after a witness failed to appear in court.
Ward has at least 21 previous charges, some for violent acts. He was out on bond for malicious wounding when police allege he comitted the November murder.
Once released on bond, suspects are free to make contact with witnesses, or their families and friends.
``A suspect has a right to amass evidence for his defense,'' Bullock said. ``He has a right to do that.''
However, Bullock added, the law prohibits anyone from threatening, harassing or intimidating witnesses, victims or their families. If that occurs, prosecutors can ask the court to issue an order forcing the suspect to stay away.
However, when witnesses see murder suspects released on bond, it ``erodes (their) faith in the system,'' said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney David Dayton. ``Which, in turn, makes them more reluctant to testify.''
A witness in the 1995 murder case against suspect Herbert Foster said he was afraid to come forward. Charges were dropped.
``They go to jail and they get out on bond, they pay $8,000 or $9,000 for a lawyer and they beat it,'' said the witness, who asked not to be identified. When they ask you to testify in open court, he said, ``they're putting your life in danger.''
``I didn't want the murder to go unsolved,'' he added. ``I told the detective I seen who did it, but my whole family is here. If they can't get me, they'll do something to my parents, my sister or my brother.
``I'm not doing anything for anybody.''
Another 1995 murder suspect, Nathaniel Richardson, has been accused but acquitted of a previous killing - the January 1993 murder of 22-year-old Craig Tabron. In a preliminary hearing in the Tabron murder, a witness testified in General District Court that Richardson had threatened witnesses and their families if they gave evidence to police, according to a transcript of the proceedings.
Suspected killers who are out on bond are sometimes arrested on other charges. At least three 1995 murder suspects - Nathaniel Richardson, Shawnta Ward and Herbert Foster - were re-arrested on additional, unrelated charges after being released from custody. Foster and Richardson later were re-arrested on drug charges after they were freed.
While out on $50,000 bond awaiting trial in the killing of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Telisha Johnson, 23-year-old Nathaniel Richardson was arrested in May during what Portsmouth police called the largest single crack cocaine seizure in the city's history. The drugs were worth an estimated $72,000. A judge refused the prosecution's request that Richardson's bond be revoked.
``A significant amount of drugs was found within feet of him and the court didn't raise the bond,'' Bullock said. ``Now, you tell me. . . what can you do?''
``We need to put more resources toward public safety,'' Bullock said. ``We've got to up the ante in terms of the resources and commitment to deal with this problem.'' MEMO: PORTSMOUTH MURDER SUSPECTS:
1. Wyndell Jones. Police say Jones beat up Calvin Tillman during a
fight in the 2400 block of Turnpike Road on Nov. 20, 1994. Tillman, who
refused treatment at a local hospital, died during 1995. Police
reclassified the incident as a homicide in May.
2. Joseph Smith. Police allege that Smith shot 18-year-old Alonzo
Bynum in the chest in a hallway at a residence in the 600 block of
Jefferson St. on March 1.
3. Melvin D. Granger. Police allege that Granger, 21, and two other
men shot and killed 39-year-old Steven Parker in the Ida Barbour housing
community on March 15. The men allegedly were involved in a gunfight and
Parker was hit in the crossfire. The state decided not to pursue murder
charges against Granger when two other men were arrested and charged in
the same crime. The two men are:
4. Donovan E. Jones, 23; and
5. Sylvester F. Pleasant Jr., 18.
6. Nathaniel A. Richardson, Jr. Police allege that Richardson, 23,
shot his pregnant girlfriend, 19-year-old Telisha Johnson, in an
apartment in the Washington Park housing community on March 21.
Richardson, whom police call one of the city's crack cocaine kingpins,
was arrested, bonded out of jail and then arrested the next week on drug
charges.
7. Herbert Foster. Police allege that Foster, 22, walked up behind
Earl A. Harris on April 22 in the parking lot of a convenience store
across from the Washington Park housing community and shot him in the
head. Harris died at the scene. Charges were dropped when witnesses
failed to testify against Foster in court.
8. Shawnta L. Ward. Police allege that Ward, 19, shot 22-year-old
Efrem D. Garner in the Downtown Tunnel during evening rush-hour traffic
on April 24. They say Ward ran with another man out of the tunnel in
clear view of dozens of motorists. Ward was arrested and charged, but
the charges were later dropped.
Ward is the suspect in another 1995 slaying. Police allege that Ward
walked into a Portsmouth restaurant and shot down 20-year-old Michael
McCormick on Nov. 17. McCormick was pronounced dead at the scene.
9. Charlie Brown Jr. Police allege that Brown, 64, argued with his
23-year-old friend Tonya N. Childs on April 26 at Brown's home in the
Douglass Park section of the city. The argument ended, police say, when
Brown shot Childs once in the chest. She was pronounced dead at the
scene.
10. Brenda L. Sivertson. Police allege that Sivertson shot her
husband, William, several times late at night at his residence in the
3700 block of Princeton Place. William Sivertson died later at Maryview
Regional Medical Center.
11. Antwan Jenkins. Police allege that Jenkins, 22, shot 23-year-old
Kelly J. Jackson five times May 21 outside a residence in the 900 block
of Tazewell St. Jackson died four days later at Sentara Norfolk General
Hospital.
12. Corey M. Jackson. Police allege that Jackson, 18, shot and killed
20-year-old Craig M. Robertson in the hallway of a residence in the 900
block of Chumley Road on May 24. Robertson, who was trying to buy drugs
when Jackson robbed and shot him, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jackson remains a fugitive.
13. William Nixon. Police allege that Nixon shot 41-year-old Terry L.
Flythe during a robbery in the Dale Homes housing project in the 200
block of Dale Drive on June 28. Flythe was pronounced dead at the
scene.
14. Robert Winfield. Police allege that Winfield, 22, had a
confrontation with 21-year-old Mark A. Martin and another man outside
the River Edge Apartments on July 24. Winfield shot Martin and another
man as the two tried to walk away. Martin was taken to Maryview Regional
Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
15. Jack McMillian. Police allege that McMillian, 20, and another man
robbed and then shot 23-year-old Jermaine L. Johnson in the 1100 block
of Virginia Ave. on Aug. 6. Johnson later died at Sentara Norfolk
General Hospital. The other men involved in the shooting, police say,
are:
16. Shawn Moye, 18; and
17. Jerome Gore.
18. Michael Vinson. Police allege that Vinson, 21, shot 16-year-old
Deshawn R. Jernigan in the head during an argument on Aug. 19 in the
Swanson Homes community. Jernigan was taken to Sentara Norfolk General
Hospital, where he died Aug. 20.
19. Irma Ziehr. Police allege that Ziehr, 25, was driving on the
Western Freeway on Aug. 20 when she intentionally rammed a car in which
14-year-old Jennifer M. Erickson was a passenger. Ziehr apparently
thought that the driver of the car was having an affair with Ziehr's
husband. Erickson died as result of injuries she suffered in the
accident.
20. Calvin Holmes. Police allege that the 20-year-old Holmes shot
19-year-old Kelvin Robinson during a robbery in the 1300 block of
Barbour Drive on Aug. 23. Robinson died two days later in a local
hospital.
21. Skipper Grant. Police allege that Grant, 23, shot 19-year-old
Ezra Wynn in the 2100 block of Des Moines Ave. on Aug. 23. Wynn was
pronounced dead at the scene.
22. Keith Columbus. Police allege that Columbus shot 32-year-old
Reginald A. Anderson during a robbery in the Dale Homes housing
community in the 200 block of Dale Drive on Sept. 8. Anderson died Sept.
9.
23. Rodney Sink. Police allege that Sink, 22, beat to death
60-year-old Cecil E. ``Mickey'' Meeks in a rented room on Wright Avenue
on Oct. 3. Sink, a deaf mute, was attempting to get back $32 from Meeks
when the two began fighting, police reported. Meeks was pronounced dead
at the scene.
24. Jimmy E. Smith. Police allege that Smith stabbed to death his
estranged wife, Deborah E. Smith, 43, on Oct. 25 at the home the couple
rented in the 4300 block of Deep Creek Blvd. Jimmy Smith was later shot
to death by a sheriff's deputy in Tazewell County.
25. David Wimbish. Police allege that Wimbish fatally wounded his
wife, Debra Wimbish, 41, with a gun on Oct. 29. Wimbish then turned the
gun on himself. He remains in a hospital.
26. Andrew Thomas. Police allege that Thomas was being robbed in the
500 block of Edwards St. on the afternoon of Oct. 31 when Thomas turned
the tables on the robber, 17-year-old Marco Marsh. Marsh was pronounced
dead from a gunshot wound at the scene.
27. Daniel Whaley. Police allege that Whaley, 40, fought with
34-year-old Michael D. Pelton at a residence in the 2900 block of
Barclay Ave. in the Fairwood Homes section of the city. Pelton died
later in a local hospital from stab wounds suffered in the fight.
28. Michael Prince. Police allege that Prince, 28, and another man
were involved in a gunfight at a crack-cocaine house in the first block
of Afton Parkway on Nov. 19 when 38-year-old Donald ``Red'' Lancaster
got caught in the crossfire. Lancaster was fatally wounded. Also accused
and later arrested in Lancaster's death was:
29. Ronald Barnes, 21.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Granger
Jones
Pleasant
Richardson
Foster
Brown
Jenkins
Jackson
Winfield
Ziehr
Holmes
Columbus
Sink
Smith
Wimbish
Thomas
Whaley
Prince
Barnes
KEYWORDS: MURDER BAIL CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM PORTSMOUTH
CIRCUIT COURT HABITUAL CRIMINALS REPEAT OFFENDERS by CNB