A 21-year-old man will spend eight years and three months in prison for fatally shooting another young man in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom -- a crime that prompted renewed debate among business owners and city officials about how best to keep the nightclub district safe.
Kerod Richardson, 21, pleaded guilty today in Richmond Circuit Court to voluntary manslaughter and a related firearm charge for shooting Justin R. Morgan, 20, in the face during a fight outside Have a Nice Day Café on Oct. 8. The club is located at East Main and South 18th streets.
Richardson had faced first-degree murder and had a jury trial set for Monday.
Under terms of a plea agreement, Richardson was sentenced on the manslaughter charge to 10 years with 4 years and 9 months suspended and on the firearm charge to 3 years in prison.
Richmond prosecutor Michael E. Hollomon said after the hearing that several factors entered in to the decision to reach a plea agreement, including that he expected Richardson to claim self defense at trial. Hollomon added that the defendant “did not make much of a statement to the police.”
“The sentence in this case reflects the circumstances that were playing out that night,” he said. “We didn’t have the most cooperative witnesses on the part of the victim, either.”
Richardson’s attorney, Sara M. Gaborik, said her client believes he acted in self defense. “I think both sides calculated the risk at trial,” she said. “Mr. Richardson, having no real prior contacts with the court, accepted his responsibility for his actions for that evening and did not want to take the risk that the jury would see things differently.”
Early the morning of Oct. 8, as the nightclubs were letting out in Shockoe Bottom, a friend of Morgan and a friend of Richardson started arguing outside the club, possibly because of a remark made to Richardson’s girlfriend or because someone bumped someone else, Hollomon said.
During the argument, Richardson’s friend told Richardson to “pull the 40” or “get the 40,” referring to a .40-caliber handgun that Richardson had on him, Hollomon said.
Hollomon said Morgan’s friend then walked a short distance and returned with four or five friends, apparently including Morgan. A brief fight started, during which someone from Morgan’s side punched Richardson above the eye, Hollomon said.
“He pulls out his 40 caliber, points it and fires it at the group,” Hollomon said. “It is unclear if he was aiming it at anyone specifically.”
Morgan was struck in the face. Hollomon said there is no evidence that Morgan or his friends were armed.
Hollomon added that because of a heavy police presence in the Bottom, officers were quickly able to detain Richardson and identify witnesses.
Hollomon said that none of the trouble that led to the shooting started inside Have a Nice Day, which has been blamed for some of the violence that has occurred in the Bottom in the past couple of years.
Morgan is the third young man to be fatally shot in the nightclub district in the past two years. All were shot around closing time for the nightclubs.
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