Grieving families cope with lack of resolution in homicide cases
Chrissheyonn West wears a shirt in her cousin's honor. Photo: Stephanie Klein-Davis
The Roanoke Times | June 19, 2017
By Amy Friedenberger
Ashley Wade doesn’t want what happened to Michael Nance to happen to her sister.
In April, a judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge against a man accused of fatally shooting Nance in Roanoke.
Wade doesn’t want what happened to Jermaine Black and 10 others to happen to her sister.
Last fall, prosecutors dropped second-degree murder and malicious wounding charges against the only man charged in a shooting at a Roanoke nightclub that killed Black and wounded 10 others.
So Wade calls the detective in charge of her sister’s case regularly to learn if there’s anything new. She drives back and forth from her home in North Carolina to her hometown of Roanoke to talk to people and examine the neighborhood where her sister, Asia Wade, was killed in February. She requests records for anything she can get her hands on.
She wants a conviction and justice in her sister’s death. But families, police and prosecutors will say there’s no guarantee of a resolution in these emotional cases.
“I’m not going to stop fighting for my sister,” Wade said. “I have to stay persistent, because I don’t want my sister’s case to fall through the cracks.”
Only a few hours passed between the last time Ashley saw Asia and the phone call in which she learned her sister had been shot, her body found outside an apartment in Shenandoah Village on 29th Street. It was Super Bowl Sunday.
“It just didn’t seem real,” Wade said.
No arrests have been made in the case. Wade knows that an arrest is just one step in getting justice for her sister, and the outcomes of some recent high-profile cases have rattled her confidence.
‘No promise of resolution’
La’Kisha Guerrant entrusted her brother’s murder case to the justice system.
Shortly after Nance died, two men were charged with second-degree murder. During a preliminary hearing in April, a witness who was present at the time of the shooting was called to testify. She invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege and remained silent. A judge dismissed the murder charge against one man, and the commonwealth’s attorney has said he expects to drop the same charge against the second defendant.
“I couldn’t believe it happened,” Guerrant said. “It boggled my mind that it happened. Someone killed my brother, and they’re getting away with it.”
Guerrant left the courthouse in tears and started a live video on Facebook, expressing outrage at what happened in the courtroom.
“None of this should have happened to my brother,” she said into the camera from her porch. “My brother didn’t deserve to be shot. My brother didn’t deserve to be killed.”
Guerrant doesn’t know what she should do next to get justice for her brother — or if it will ever come.
“It’s sad to say, but I don’t have faith in the justice system,” she said in an interview. “It failed my brother.”
Between 2012 and today, 53 homicides have been reported in Roanoke. Fifteen cases have generated no criminal charges and are still under investigation. In three more cases, charges were dismissed against the sole defendant. Defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 10 cases. Four cases have gone to trial, and in one, a jury acquitted the defendant. In the case involving the 2013 death of Derek Randell “Twin” Price, one man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, while a second defendant saw numerous offenses, including first-degree murder, dropped because of problems with witnesses. Police have said 50 to 100 people stood in the street where Price was shot.
Issues with witnesses consistently bedevil police and prosecutors and have led to charges being dropped or reduced. A few months before the Nance case entered the courtroom, a judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge against the only person charged in the September shooting that killed Black and wounded 10 others. About 70 people were outside Monsters Bar and Grill on Orange Avenue that night.
“When we work a case and there are witnesses but no one wants come forward and assist us and we hit that wall of silence, it’s very frustrating and very disappointing for our detectives,” said Sgt. David Morris, supervisor of the city’s major crimes unit.
Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell said he’s dealt with about 500 homicide cases over his nearly 40 years as commonwealth’s attorney and he’s had to make decisions he knew would be upsetting to families.
“Bad things happen to good people, but there’s no promise of a resolution in a court of law,” he said.
He said in such emotional cases, it’s important that people “don’t confuse moral outrage with proof.”
“In the criminal justice system, the burden is upon the commonwealth to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Caldwell said.
Morris said that when charges get dropped or reduced, detectives drag the pain and frustration with them, as well.
“We sit there and wonder what we didn’t do or what we missed that could have brought resolution to a family,” Morris said. “Some detectives, they take this to heart because they feel it’s their responsibility to bring that justice, and sometimes there are factors outside of their control.”
When charges get dropped, detectives start digging again, reviewing what evidence they have and how they can approach a case from a new angle.
“Every one of the detectives invests so much time and effort and energy into these cases, because they never want to see any of them fall by the wayside,” Morris said.
Preparing for the worst
If Scarlette Clarkson had advice for Wade, it would be to prepare for the worst outcome.
Clarkson’s fiance, Kendall Lamont Wallace, was gunned down in downtown Roanoke a year ago. She was grieving and trying to re-organize her life without Wallace in it. She also wanted justice, so she repeatedly watched security cameras of the incident and talked to police when they asked her to.
In February, Adrian Tremaine Simmons, who was originally charged with first-degree murder, entered an Alford plea to an amended count of voluntary manslaughter and received 10 years in prison. Prosecutors couldn’t secure crucial witnesses to testify. The reduced charge shocked Clarkson.
“It sent a horrible message to people who walk around with guns,” Clarkson said. “You can give this man 80 years, that’s not going to make me feel better, and it’s not going to bring him back to me and my son so we can go to baseball or football games together. The prosecution just wanted to end the case, but it sent a bad message, a disrespectful message.”
Caldwell said he wanted to hold the shooter accountable and remove him from the streets. He said he sometimes has to remind families that the commonwealth’s attorney is elected to represent the people as a whole and not just the families of the victims. The outcome was difficult decision, one that didn’t garner cheers from anyone, he said.
“I often say that justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” Caldwell said.
Wade said she still has faith in the justice system. From studying cases, she hopes that if there is an arrest and it does enter the courtroom, justice for her sister won’t hinge on a witness’s testimony. She doesn’t want someone to feel that pressure, and she doesn’t want to face the unpredictability.
“I hope the detective can solve it, they can win it in court, and the people in Roanoke and the families of the victims of homicides can have some type of hope,” she said.
By Amy Friedenberger
Ashley Wade doesn’t want what happened to Michael Nance to happen to her sister.
In April, a judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge against a man accused of fatally shooting Nance in Roanoke.
Wade doesn’t want what happened to Jermaine Black and 10 others to happen to her sister.
Last fall, prosecutors dropped second-degree murder and malicious wounding charges against the only man charged in a shooting at a Roanoke nightclub that killed Black and wounded 10 others.
So Wade calls the detective in charge of her sister’s case regularly to learn if there’s anything new. She drives back and forth from her home in North Carolina to her hometown of Roanoke to talk to people and examine the neighborhood where her sister, Asia Wade, was killed in February. She requests records for anything she can get her hands on.
She wants a conviction and justice in her sister’s death. But families, police and prosecutors will say there’s no guarantee of a resolution in these emotional cases.
“I’m not going to stop fighting for my sister,” Wade said. “I have to stay persistent, because I don’t want my sister’s case to fall through the cracks.”
Only a few hours passed between the last time Ashley saw Asia and the phone call in which she learned her sister had been shot, her body found outside an apartment in Shenandoah Village on 29th Street. It was Super Bowl Sunday.
“It just didn’t seem real,” Wade said.
No arrests have been made in the case. Wade knows that an arrest is just one step in getting justice for her sister, and the outcomes of some recent high-profile cases have rattled her confidence.
‘No promise of resolution’
La’Kisha Guerrant entrusted her brother’s murder case to the justice system.
Shortly after Nance died, two men were charged with second-degree murder. During a preliminary hearing in April, a witness who was present at the time of the shooting was called to testify. She invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege and remained silent. A judge dismissed the murder charge against one man, and the commonwealth’s attorney has said he expects to drop the same charge against the second defendant.
“I couldn’t believe it happened,” Guerrant said. “It boggled my mind that it happened. Someone killed my brother, and they’re getting away with it.”
Guerrant left the courthouse in tears and started a live video on Facebook, expressing outrage at what happened in the courtroom.
“None of this should have happened to my brother,” she said into the camera from her porch. “My brother didn’t deserve to be shot. My brother didn’t deserve to be killed.”
Guerrant doesn’t know what she should do next to get justice for her brother — or if it will ever come.
“It’s sad to say, but I don’t have faith in the justice system,” she said in an interview. “It failed my brother.”
Between 2012 and today, 53 homicides have been reported in Roanoke. Fifteen cases have generated no criminal charges and are still under investigation. In three more cases, charges were dismissed against the sole defendant. Defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 10 cases. Four cases have gone to trial, and in one, a jury acquitted the defendant. In the case involving the 2013 death of Derek Randell “Twin” Price, one man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, while a second defendant saw numerous offenses, including first-degree murder, dropped because of problems with witnesses. Police have said 50 to 100 people stood in the street where Price was shot.
Issues with witnesses consistently bedevil police and prosecutors and have led to charges being dropped or reduced. A few months before the Nance case entered the courtroom, a judge dismissed a second-degree murder charge against the only person charged in the September shooting that killed Black and wounded 10 others. About 70 people were outside Monsters Bar and Grill on Orange Avenue that night.
“When we work a case and there are witnesses but no one wants come forward and assist us and we hit that wall of silence, it’s very frustrating and very disappointing for our detectives,” said Sgt. David Morris, supervisor of the city’s major crimes unit.
Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell said he’s dealt with about 500 homicide cases over his nearly 40 years as commonwealth’s attorney and he’s had to make decisions he knew would be upsetting to families.
“Bad things happen to good people, but there’s no promise of a resolution in a court of law,” he said.
He said in such emotional cases, it’s important that people “don’t confuse moral outrage with proof.”
“In the criminal justice system, the burden is upon the commonwealth to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Caldwell said.
Morris said that when charges get dropped or reduced, detectives drag the pain and frustration with them, as well.
“We sit there and wonder what we didn’t do or what we missed that could have brought resolution to a family,” Morris said. “Some detectives, they take this to heart because they feel it’s their responsibility to bring that justice, and sometimes there are factors outside of their control.”
When charges get dropped, detectives start digging again, reviewing what evidence they have and how they can approach a case from a new angle.
“Every one of the detectives invests so much time and effort and energy into these cases, because they never want to see any of them fall by the wayside,” Morris said.
Preparing for the worst
If Scarlette Clarkson had advice for Wade, it would be to prepare for the worst outcome.
Clarkson’s fiance, Kendall Lamont Wallace, was gunned down in downtown Roanoke a year ago. She was grieving and trying to re-organize her life without Wallace in it. She also wanted justice, so she repeatedly watched security cameras of the incident and talked to police when they asked her to.
In February, Adrian Tremaine Simmons, who was originally charged with first-degree murder, entered an Alford plea to an amended count of voluntary manslaughter and received 10 years in prison. Prosecutors couldn’t secure crucial witnesses to testify. The reduced charge shocked Clarkson.
“It sent a horrible message to people who walk around with guns,” Clarkson said. “You can give this man 80 years, that’s not going to make me feel better, and it’s not going to bring him back to me and my son so we can go to baseball or football games together. The prosecution just wanted to end the case, but it sent a bad message, a disrespectful message.”
Caldwell said he wanted to hold the shooter accountable and remove him from the streets. He said he sometimes has to remind families that the commonwealth’s attorney is elected to represent the people as a whole and not just the families of the victims. The outcome was difficult decision, one that didn’t garner cheers from anyone, he said.
“I often say that justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” Caldwell said.
Wade said she still has faith in the justice system. From studying cases, she hopes that if there is an arrest and it does enter the courtroom, justice for her sister won’t hinge on a witness’s testimony. She doesn’t want someone to feel that pressure, and she doesn’t want to face the unpredictability.
“I hope the detective can solve it, they can win it in court, and the people in Roanoke and the families of the victims of homicides can have some type of hope,” she said.
