A former valet parking attendant for the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Richmond was arrested Wednesday on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the October death of a young writer and aspiring journalist.
Paul Peter Gray Jr., 26, of Chesterfield County, was charged in an indictment handed down Jan. 3 by a Richmond grand jury.
Gray is accused of fatally striking Josephine Varnier Stone, 23, while driving as she was walking along North Fifth Street from Penny Lane Pub, where she had stopped to say hello to friends and former co-workers before heading to a show at The National.
On Oct. 28, Gray "was parking a guest's car and ran over the victim at a high rate of speed in the rain on a city sidewalk," Richmond Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland said. Witnesses said the vehicle was traveling about 30 mph.
Gray was arraigned Wednesday on the manslaughter count before substitute Richmond Circuit Judge Buford M. Parsons Jr. He was released on $10,000 bond pending a hearing Feb. 27 in Richmond Circuit Court.
John Cario, general manager of the Hilton Garden Inn, said Gray no longer is employed by Parking Management Systems, a contractor that provides valet parking services for the hotel.
Gray has two traffic convictions in Chesterfield County for driving more than 10 mph over the speed limit, in 2003 and 2010. In one case, he initially was charged with reckless driving for speeding 50 mph in a 30 mph zone, but the charge was later reduced to speeding 49 in a 35 mph zone, online court records show.
Gray also was charged in 2004 with driving on a suspended license, but that offense was ultimately dismissed, according to records.
Stone had worked as a waitress at Penny Lane since December 2007 and met her future husband there. She graduated cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University last spring with degrees in English and journalism.
At the time of her death, she had recently started a job as a technical writer for WellPoint Inc. and shown promise as an aspiring journalist to those who knew her. In 2009, she was one of a dozen staff members chosen nationally to write for The Working Press, the publication of the Society of Professional Journalists' annual conference in Indianapolis. She also was a correspondent for VCU's Capital News Service.
More than 200 people showed up at an informal memorial service for Stone on Halloween at Bon Air Baptist Church, and many shared affectionate and sometimes humorous sentiments about her life. The service fell on Stone's favorite holiday; she also got married on Halloween.
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