March protests acquittal, dropped charges in slaying

PETERSBURG -- A March for Justice rally drew more than 100 people yesterday amid criticism of an acquittal and dropped charges in the shooting death of a popular Petersburg businessman three years ago.

Slain businessman Robert L. Braswell Jr.'s family organized the afternoon march to the Petersburg Police Department in response to the June 1 acquittal of one of four defendants charged in his slaying and last week's decision by a special prosecutor to drop charges against two other defendants scheduled for trial this month.

Braswell's relatives say they are determined to see convictions in the case.

"Anger," said widow Rhonda Braswell, when asked her reaction to news of the dropped charges.

Marching across the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge that links Petersburg and Colonial Heights, where the Braswells lived, Braswell said she hopes to send a message that the case can't be swept aside.

"The rational person in me understands" that it will take time, she said. "The wife part of me who suffers every day doesn't because justice isn't being done."

While not expressly describing the court proceeding as racially biased, Braswell said only one white person sat on the jury, and she questioned the decision to turn over prosecution of the case to an outside prosecutor from another jurisdiction, who is white. Petersburg Commonwealth's Attorney Cassandra Burns is black.

Braswell also claimed that a total of four jurors fell asleep during the trial; she said she saw two doze off and that other relatives saw another two fall asleep.

Assistant Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney Nelson Fisher, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case, dropped charges against two other defendants last week, saying that the not-guilty verdict against key defendant and admitted crack-cocaine dealer Antoine D. Mylar, 29, of Hopewell pointed to difficulties in the case.

Fisher said last night that no trial date has been set for the fourth co-defendant, Shelly Grey, 49. Mylar's defense lawyer described her testimony in his case as not credible and inconsistent.

Fisher said the shift in prosecution to his office was prompted in part because Grey had once received help from Petersburg's victim-witness assistance program, which is operated by the commonwealth's attorney's office.

Fisher said a perception of a conflict of interest could have developed if Burns' office had tried the case.

Robert Braswell, 43, was shot to death in front of his business, Lowry Tire, on North Crater Road as he opened for business Nov. 9, 2006. The first arrests in the high-profile case came two years later.

Robert Braswell's youngest sister, Stacy Galle, and stepsister, Carrie Hubert, have said family members are considering asking for federal help in prosecuting the case as a hate crime if it stalls in Petersburg.

Rhonda Braswell, marching with her three daughters yesterday and an all-white following of supporters, said she is still stunned by the loss of her husband to such violence.

"The shop closed the day he died and never re-opened," she said. She continues to work as a bookkeeper but has had to sell the family home.

"It's been devastating for us," she said.

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