5-year sentence recommended in teen’s death

A Chesterfield County jury recommended a five-year prison term yesterday for Joseph Wayne Garrard for fatally shooting his daughter's 19-year-old former boyfriend in a chaotic confrontation last year.

The seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated just more than 2½ hours before delivering its decision in Chesterfield Circuit Court. Judge T.J. Hauler set formal sentencing for May 4.

Garrard, 39, also will be sentenced at that time on a related charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, to which he pleaded guilty in September. He faces up to five years for that offense. His previous felony conviction, nearly 20 years ago, was for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

On Thursday, the jury convicted Garrard of voluntary manslaughter stemming from his 4 a.m. encounter with Derek Stringfellow Best just inside the front door of Garrard's home.

Jurors appeared to take the middle road in deciding that Best's fatal shooting was something less than a murder but something more than an accident. The panel rejected the original charge of first-degree murder, as well as a lesser count of second-degree murder.

And yesterday, the jurors seemed to compromise again by recommending half the maximum 10-year penalty for voluntary manslaughter.

"I don't think anybody is going to feel this is the right [punishment], no matter what it is," Hauler told relatives of the victim and defendant shortly before he was handed the jury's recommendation.

Defense attorney Greg Sheldon built his case around the family's belief that Garrard was simply defending them from a frightening incursion into their home after Best, who was legally intoxicated, pounded loudly on their front door in the middle of the night.

Best was accompanied by his brother, his brother's girlfriend and another friend -- all strangers to Garrard and his wife. Best's shooting, the family claimed, was the unintentional result of alcohol-fueled belligerence.

Prosecutors Warren Von Schuch and James O'Connell presented a starkly different version. They alleged that Garrard maliciously shot Best after the young man went to their home to talk about Garrard's 17-year-old daughter, who tormented and mistreated the teen that night and throughout their contentious relationship. Best's shooting, sparked by a racially and sexually charged remark he made about Garrard's daughter, was nothing short of premeditated murder, they said.

Hauler noted that the case came down to the credibility of several witnesses who all played roles in the confrontation that ended tragically.

Garrard testified that he accidentally shot Best after the teen charged him during the confrontation inside his home. But prosecution witnesses said Best didn't behave aggressively after Garrard's wife let him inside. They said Garrard had a discussion with Best and then went upstairs to retrieve the gun after he heard the offensive remark about his daughter.

Robert Best and his wife, Deborah, testified yesterday that the loss of their son has crushed their will to live. "I lost everything with Derek," the father said. "My life has practically ended."

Contact Mark Bowes at (804) 649-6450 or .