UPDATE: Guilty of manslaughter, he walks free

Eric G. Driver Jr. walked out of a Richmond courthouse Wednesday night a free man after being found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of a man he shot during a confrontation last spring.

After deliberating about one hour, a Richmond Circuit Court jury recommended that he serve no time and be fined nothing even though, several hours earlier, it found he was guilty of manslaughter.

The charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine. He originally was charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. imposed the jury's no-sentence recommendation, saying that because state law forbids him from increasing a recommended sentence, any further proceeding would be extraneous.

"I'm more blessed than anything," Driver said as he left the John Marshall Courthouse surrounded by tearful family members.

He also expressed compassion for his victim, whom he said he will pray for the rest of his life.

In a letter to the judge, the jury expressed hope that Driver would perform some form of community service.

But the judge said that, too, would increase the recommended sentence so he could not order that either.

Testimony in the trial showed that the victim, Jamall Holman, 24, had been breaking into the car of Driver's girlfriend.

Prosecutors argued that Driver, 25, broke the law and should pay the consequences for killing Holman.

Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring said the defendant reacted with anger that his girlfriend's car had been broken into twice in one day and chose to mete out "street justice" when he should have called police.

"No car burglary is ever worth a gun battle in the middle of the street," Herring said.

But Herring told the jury during the sentencing phase that Driver deserved no more than two or three years in prison. Because the jury did not convict Driver of murder, it found him innocent of use of a firearm in the commission of a murder. That conviction would have carried a mandatory three years in prison.

Herring described both Driver and Holman as coming from “salt of the earth, decent people” but as two young men whose lives were on different trajectories.

Holman, a scholarship football played at Virginia State University, had been expelled for playing craps and his life was unraveling, Herring said.

Defense attorney John W. Luxton said the manslaughter conviction meant that Driver would carry the label of felon for the rest of his life, a severe penalty for a young man who was being courted by the Defense Department and IRS as a special agent because of his academic accomplishments at Virginia Union University.

“He told the police that his life was over,” Driver’s mother, Joyce, told the jury of her son’s reaction to Holman’s death. “He felt his future was destroyed as well as Jamall’s life.”

At the center of the defense case was a menacing-looking black mask worn by Holman and his brazen actions April 22, when he broke into the car on a warm, bright afternoon outside Driver's home near North 22nd and East Leigh streets in the city's East End.

Laying out a self-defense argument, attorney Luxton called witnesses who described the fear inspired by the mask, which looked to be of a nylonlike material with crudely cut openings for eyes.

"He pulled down a mask, and all I could see was eyes," said Candice Porter, the defendant's girlfriend at the time of the incident, whose voice quavered as she recalled the encounter. "I was very scared. I was terrified. I couldn't see his face anymore."

Tanya Murphy, a neighbor, said she heard several gunshots and left her home. She said she rushed up to the wounded victim to see if he was OK. "He turned over and looked at me, and he was wearing a black mask, which terrified me," she said.

"An executioner's mask," declared Luxton, showing jurors two photos of the mask during his closing argument.

Porter, 22, testified she left Driver's apartment about 4 p.m. and approached her red 1996 Honda Civic, where she saw Holman in the passenger seat. She asked him why he was in the car, and he repeatedly told her "Don't do it" and pulled the mask over his face, she said.

She started screaming for Driver and started climbing the steps to Driver's nearby second-floor apartment, passing him as he hurried down the steps with his .40-caliber pistol. She said she told Driver that the man in her car had told her either that he had a gun or that he was going to kill her.

He said he found the man near the car and asked him what he was doing in Porter's car. The man did not say anything but only stared at Driver and started moving sideways, "like he's lining up with me," Driver testified.

Driver said he pointed his gun at the man, hoping he would run, but instead Holman stopped and appeared to reach into a bag for a dark-colored object.

Driver testified that he initially fired two or three times, causing the man to turn to run. "I was running at him, shooting because I felt that if I stopped, he was going to turn around and shoot me," Driver said.

Driver said he still believes Holman had been reaching for a gun, although Driver admitted he never saw a gun. Police recovered Driver's gun but never found a second weapon.

The defendant also testified he lost sight of Holman and that moments later, Holman emerged from behind a trailer parked on the street and attacked Driver by grabbing him by the throat and trying to take his gun.

Driver said he held the gun high in the air and fired downward two or three times. He stood in the witness box and fashioned his hand like a gun to demonstrate for the jury.

Shell casings recovered at the scene showed Driver fired eight rounds. One of the three bullets that hit Holman was fired from close range and entered the top of his shoulder downward, according to medical testimony.

Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or rwilliams@timesdispatch.com.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.