Hanover man sentenced to 28 years in killing

A Hanover County man will spend nearly 30 years in prison for second-degree murder in the brutal stomping death of his disabled, elderly cousin last August.

Judge Timothy K. Sanner of Louisa County Circuit Court yesterday suspended 15 years of a 40-year sentence for Jerome Mallory, 42, and tacked on an additional 3½ years from a previously suspended sentence.

The hearing ended proceedings in a family quarrel that erupted in violence between Mallory and his 69-year-old cousin, Charles E. Houchens of Bumpass.

"Justice was done today, and we are happy that the judge saw fit to bring Mr. Houchens' family some sense of relief. But there will always be a void in their lives that can't be filled," said Louisa Commonwealth's Attorney Thomas A. Garrett Jr., who prosecuted the case with Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Rusty McGuire.

Mallory, who has multiple past convictions for assault, repeatedly kicked Houchens in the head, flattening the man again and again as he tried to get up and make his way across the yard, Garrett said. It was never clear what started the quarrel, Garrett said. Neither drugs nor alcohol figured in the crime.

Mallory had been out of prison only a few months, and Houchens had tried to shepherd the man around the county as he looked for work. Houchens was no stranger to violence, having been shot at previously, receiving wounds that required a colostomy bag.

Mallory pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Houchens' death in May, subjecting himself to a possible maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. At the time, McGuire described the Aug. 2 beating, saying "Mallory treated [his cousin's] head like a football."

Mallory asked the court yesterday for a lenient sentence, saying that Houchens had angered him, drawn a shotgun on him, and that he had hoped Houchens would revive when ambulance crews arrived at the scene.

But testimony in the case established that Houchens may have lain motionless for about four hours before rescue workers were summoned and found Houchens' bloodied body in a roadway. He died a week later.

Mallory said he had cleaned up after the rescue squad left with his cousin and partially blamed seizures for Houchens' condition. But Garrett said other evidence pointed to Mallory's more direct role in Houchens' death.

"Investigators found blood on his tennis shoes," the prosecutor said.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or .