Posted on 04/05/2002 10:29:20 AM PST by tarawa
No charges will be filed in girl's fatal shooting
Prosecutors won't seek murder or firearms charges against Hallis Jamison. Meanwhile, new details emerged in the case.
By TAD DICKENS
THE ROANOKE TIMES
An 82-year-old Roanoke man will not face charges in the Feb. 26 shooting of a 15-year-old girl standing on his front porch, prosecutors announced Friday.
A Roanoke grand jury made a rational and sound decision when it declined March 4 to indict Hallis Jamison on murder and firearms charges, Roanoke prosecutors said in a news release, which included details of the incident that have not previously been released.
Prosecutors will not refile those charges against Jamison, convicted in 1952 of second-degree murder, a crime for which he served about three years in prison.
The news release said a t least one unidentified, uninvited person was loose in his house, and Jamison - living alone and with no working phone - could be considered reasonable if he believed he was in danger of death or serious bodily injury . With people in the house, and someone knocking at the door, Jamison was "essentially trapped within his home by unknown parties," they wrote.
"It was a juvenile stunt that just had consequences beyond what I think they could've ever imagined," Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said of those on Jamison's property when Jamison pulled the trigger of a hunting rifle, hitting Charlotte Brown in the abdomen.
The stunt, however, will not lead to charges against three juveniles in the case - two of whom had stolen a set of Jamison's keys earlier that day. Jamison himself requested that prosecutors not charge them, because they have been through enough already.
"Acknowledging the humanitarian motivation behind this request and factoring in their ages and lack of previous involvement in the juvenile court system, the commonwealth will not proceed with charges against the juveniles," Caldwell wrote in the release.
He wrote that he does not believe there is a perfect solution to the tragic situation, but he believes it is fair.
Police arrested Jamison, charging him with malicious wounding and use of a firearm, about five hours before Brown died in Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. After the grand jury declined to issue a murder indictment, prosecutors dropped the original case. Caldwell said at the time that it was the first time in his memory that a city grand jury has made such a decision in a homicide.
Until Friday, though, it wasn't clear whether Jamison would finally face charges. His brother-in-law, Taze Phelps, said Friday he is thankful for the decision. Phelps said Jamison has been living with him since the shooting but has not felt like talking with reporters.
"He didn't mean to kill," Phelps said. "He meant to scare."
Prosecutors used the news release to outline what police have learned happened the day Brown was shot outside Jamison's Hanover Avenue Northwest home:
It started when two sisters, ages 13 and 16, came to visit Jamison. Authorities have not released the girls' names. The sisters, who had been to his house before, took a set of car keys, intending to take Jamison's car. But the keys did not fit the car.
Soon, Brown, the girls' cousin, showed up with a 16-year-old male. A plan was devised - prosecutors did not say by whom - in which the older sister and the boy would go through the unlocked back door and try to get the right set of keys. Meanwhile, someone would divert Jamison's attention at the front door.
"The juveniles have indicated that the deceased female wanted to alert Mr. Jamison to the plan," prosecutors wrote. "Regardless of her intentions, however, her actions ... ultimately played into the plan."
About 7:45 p.m., Jamison heard knocking and talking at his front door. He told police that as he came down his stairs, he saw someone running inside his house. The juveniles later said that they were inside at the time.
Jamison grabbed a rifle, and when he heard more knocking and talking at the front door, he fired.
Police found two other weapons in the house - a .22-caliber rifle and a sawed-off shotgun.
Jamison has most likely owned all the weapons since before 1979, when Virginia law changed to forbid convicted felons from possessing any firearm, Caldwell said. Since 1999, a conviction on that charge carries a five-year mandatory sentence.
"The severity of such a sentence under the unusual circumstances of this particular case does not appear to be appropriate," they wrote.
Police permanently seized the weapons, and Caldwell said he believes Jamison will not own any more guns. Phelps said Jamison will not have any weapons as long as he lives with him.
"We've made that understood from the beginning," Phelps said.
Jamison has been upset and spends a lot of time sleeping, Phelps said, but Friday evening he was back at the old homeplace, working on a camping trailer. Still, it is unlikely he will live there again, Phelps said.
"I'm almost certain he won't go back there," Phelps said, "because he's scared."
Members of Brown's family said they believe Jamison was telling the truth when he said he did not mean to kill her. Her mother, Doris Brown, said she was upset after Friday's decision but did not hold it against Jamison. She said she has no plans to pursue civil action against him.
"I don't want his money," she said.
I'm glad the prosecutor announced that he thought it was a fair and just decision by the grand jury.
I agree, a sound & rational decision.
Also; an incredibly biased statement from a news report.
Read the sentence more carefully.
Right you were. Thanks for the patience & help.
I thought the exact same thing you did as I read it.
Then I figured it must be an editorial or it was a quote or paraphrase.
I'm not sure I could get on board with this part of it. When someone sets out to steal a car from an old man and someone gets killed, there has to be consequences a little more serious than feeling bad.
Don't shoot if you don't intend to kill.
awesome way to word their decision...
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