THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050366
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN AND JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 100 lines
For the first time in Hampton Roads, a jury recommended Wednesday that a person who was a juvenile when he committed murder be sentenced to death for his crime.
A Circuit Court jury recommended that Chauncey Jackson - 16 when he shot Ronald Bonney Jr. to death, and now 18 - be executed, accepting claims by doctors and prosecutors that he is a future danger to society.
That makes Jackson only the fourth juvenile in Virginia, and the youngest, at the time of the offense, to get the death penalty since it was reinstated in 1977.
In fact, if a judge carries out the jury's recommendation, Jackson would become one of only a dozen death row inmates in the United States who were 16 when they committed their crimes, said Richard C. Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
When the sentence was read, Jackson remained solemn, as he had been throughout most of the trial. His mother shivered and sobbed while friends and family consoled her. They declined to be interviewed.
Jackson had turned 16 just six weeks before killing Bonney in Diggs Town two years ago. If a defendant is 15 when he or she commits a crime, he or she cannot be sentenced to death because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, defense attorneys argued.
Bonney was at a bar on August 31, 1994, and left to give a man a ride home. The man got out and went into a house in the 1500 block of Vine St. while Bonney waited outside. Jackson's co-defendant, Calvin Outlaw, then walked over to Bonney and asked him if he had any money he wanted to spend.
Jackson climbed into the passenger seat, produced a gun and told Bonney to ``give it up,'' according a statement Outlaw gave to police. Jackson told Outlaw to back up, and shot Bonney three times with a .25-caliber handgun. He died at a hospital.
Jackson was convicted last week of capital murder, conspiracy, attempted robbery, possession of stolen goods and two firearm charges. Outlaw was convicted of first-degree murder last year and sentenced to 68 years in prison.
The jury of nine women and three men deliberated nearly 4 1/2 hours Wednesday after hearing closing arguments on Tuesday.
While Jackson's friends and relatives reeled at the punishment, the Bonney family felt a two-year weight begin to ease. The victim's parents, Twila and Ronald G. Bonney Sr., were somber Wednesday as they left the courthouse.
``You didn't want death. But you didn't want him going back out in society either,'' Ronald Bonney said.
Bonney said he wasn't surprised with the jury's decision after listening to the testimony of doctors who did psychological assessments. ``I heard the doctors talk. He (Jackson) never showed any emotion in the two years I saw him,'' Bonney said.
In that time, Bonney said, his family also has not heard one apologetic word from Jackson.
The father praised the work of detectives and prosecutors in bringing the case to a conclusion. At some point, Bonney said, he simply decided to put the matter in God's hands.
With the conviction and sentencing recommendation, the family now has some sense of closure, Bonney said, but they know the case is far from over.
``It's been two years,'' he said. ``It's been awful hard on us.''
The pain was compounded by a court technicality that set Jackson free on bond just when his trial was scheduled to start in October 1995. While Jackson was out on bond last December, he broke into an occupied Campostella house and committed several crimes.
In that case, Jackson was convicted of 14 felonies, including abduction, robbery and using a firearm. The jury learned of these convictions during the sentencing phase.
Prosecutors argued that if Jackson would commit such crimes while he was out on bond for capital murder, his penchant for future danger was clear.
``The defendant has shown you the true condition of his heart,'' prosecutor Clark Dougherty said during Tuesday's closing arguments, ``that he falls in the category of persons that don't change. What he has shown is that he will continue to be a danger to human beings.''
The prosecution did not plan to push for the death penalty until Jackson committed the additional felonies in December, prosecutor Lisa McKeel said. She said the jury arrived at its verdict after ``they saw just a total lack of remorse and empathy.''
One of Jackson's attorneys, Jon Babineau, said he and co-counsel James Broccoletti were shocked at the sentence.
``It's a tragic commentary on society,'' Babineau said.
``I don't know when it will hit him (Jackson) with the fact he's facing death.''
Babineau represented another teen-ager, Royale Stewart, who was convicted this summer of capital murder, but was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
At that time, Babineau said, ``I'm just glad society has not been reduced to deciding that death is the only punishment for a 16-year-old convicted of a serious offense.''
During closing arguments Tuesday, Broccoletti pleaded with jurors that Jackson would not be a threat if he were sent to prison for the rest of his life.
``Just because it was a capital crime doesn't mean he has to be killed,'' Broccoletti said. ``Do you put to death an 18-year-old who's treatable?''
Judge Lydia C. Taylor is scheduled to formally sentence Jackson on Nov. 25. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Chauncey Jackson
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING JUVENILE TEENAGER TRIAL
CONVICTION SENTENCING by CNB