A look inside the Taliaferro jury

Media coverage and outrage over controversial verdicts in the shooting death of popular Powhatan High School student Tahliek Taliaferro may have influenced jurors while they deliberated the sentence of one of the men they convicted in the case.

Four jurors independently confirmed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in recent interviews that as many as three jurors viewed or read media accounts during the sentencing phase of the trial. They said those jurors told the group they were fearful of the repercussions that might ensue from a light sentence for shooter Ethan Parrish because it could further inflame the community and possibly endanger jurors.

Judge Thomas V. Warren of Powhatan County Circuit Court had sternly warned jurors throughout the trial not to talk about the case, read newspapers or watch television.

"Now remember what I told you about not discussing the case with anyone or remaining within hearing of anyone that was discussing the case," the judge told jurors before dismissing them for the weekend on Friday, March 20. The jury returned the following Monday and immediately began deliberating the verdicts.

A judge can dismiss a juror who has been exposed to media reports or in extreme cases can order a mistrial. It is not known whether anyone made Warren aware of problems with deliberations during the trial and sentencing phases.

In addition to the issue of possible jury contamination because of media exposure, another matter involving a juror's impartiality did not come up during the trial.

One juror lost his 19-year-old son in a horrific car crash 23 years ago, a case that resonated with the Taliaferro case in some ways. But he did not mention that case when prospective jurors were asked if any conflicts or other issues would make it difficult hear the Taliaferro case fairly. In the manslaughter case, the driver of the car was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by Warren, sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay $71.50 in court costs.

In February 1988, Warren signed an order resolving a wrongful-death suit that paid the son's survivors, including the Taliaferro juror, a total of $33,928.33.

Powhatan Commonwealth's Attorney Robert B. Beasley Jr. said last week that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on many matters relating to the jury's deliberations.

In the past several weeks, The Times-Dispatch attempted to contact all 14 jurors but reached only 12, 11 of whom talked to some degree about the experience. The jurors agreed to discuss the deliberations on condition they would remain anonymous for privacy reasons and partly out of fear for their safety or the safety of their families.

After the verdicts were reached, the judge verbally ordered a Circuit Court clerk to seal the names of jurors because he didn't want the media to contact them.

In interviews, many jurors expressed a lingering reluctance to go out in public because of still-simmering tensions over the case. Some said they were unable to sleep. A few said they have sought medical attention. Some said they would not want to serve on another jury.

"When I would come home at night, I was shaking so hard I could not eat," one juror said. "The kind of emotion this jury put into that trial and how intently they sat there and listened to every bit of information given them, I think they performed wonderfully."

. . .

The shooting death June 24, 2008, of 19-year-old Taliaferro and the near-fatal wounding of 15-year-old Courtney Jones, as well as the emotional court proceedings that followed, were marked for months by allegations of racism and injustice.

Only one of the 14 jurors selected to hear the case was black; the panel deliberating the verdict and sentence in Ethan Parrish's case consisted of 11 whites and one black (the other two members of the panel were alternates).

Jurors reached by the newspaper uniformly expressed dismay that they had been accused of not impartially hearing the case.

"Racism was never a part of the trial," one said, reflecting comments of other jurors. "And it wasn't part of the deliberations."

"The most painful aspect of it all were the reports that we were racist, that we had not done our duty to reach fair verdicts in the case," said another.

Even as they sat together in the jury room after the selection process ended, some jurors said they were more aware of another commonality: "There were no young people," one juror said. Juror ages ranged from the late 30s to the early 70s.

But several of the jurors also spoke of feeling intimidated and highly nervous during much of the proceedings, especially when the jury issued involuntary-manslaughter verdicts in a case in which the prosecutor and the victims' families and supporters had vigorously asked for first-degree murder convictions.

The verdicts were read aloud in a courtroom ringed with deputies and state police. That evening, jurors were escorted to their cars by officers and had to return the next day to continue deliberations on sentencing Ethan Parrish.

Parrish's cousin, Joey Parrish, did not come under the jury's sentencing deliberations because he was a juvenile when the shooting occurred.

Jurors related that at least two jurors agreed to the involuntary-manslaughter convictions only on the basis that they would subsequently agree only to a maximum sentence -- 10 years in prison.

But other jurors, some of whom felt that the Parrishes had acted in self-defense, strongly favored lesser verdicts and lesser sentences.

Negotiations broke down Monday on the sentences, and the panel left the courthouse for home; some members asked for deputies to escort them to their cars. The next day, jurors resumed deliberations, which jurors said were highly emotional.

And some jurors said they were aware of news accounts from that morning and the previous evening that reflected the anger over the verdicts. Fears of repercussions against jurors helped push the panel toward unanimous agreement for a maximum sentence, they said.

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In the jury room, members said they were initially widely split over a verdict.

"There were people on the jury who saw this case as a matter of self-defense. There were people who wanted the max, first-degree murder," one juror said.

Some recounted the contradiction-filled testimony from Taliaferro's friends. "It was like they tried to get their stories together, and it just didn't work," one juror said.

Defense lawyers spent long minutes showing the jury how statements about the day's events changed among prosecution witnesses and changed over time for individual witnesses.

Several jurors said they were bothered that more of the Taliaferro group didn't take the stand, people who could have corroborated that Harris had or didn't have a gun; or, who could have stated more clearly the intent of the Taliaferro group as it left Bruster's Ice Cream shop after the initial confrontation with the Parrishes.

But more important was trying to meld the jumble of testimony -- it covers about 1,000 pages in transcripts -- with 50 separate jury instructions spelling out the legal requirements for bringing convictions for the 17 separate charges facing the two cousins.

Jurors eventually settled on a compromise, concluding that the shootings were spontaneous acts that were carried out without malice. That meant that murder convictions were out of the question.

Instead, jurors said the Parrishes had shown a reckless disregard for human life and convicted them of involuntary manslaughter, punishable up to a maximum of 10 years in prison.

One juror said that because Ethan was found to have acted without malice in killing Taliaferro, the same had to hold true for the wounding of Jones. That meant, based on the jury instructions, that Jones' wounding became a misdemeanor assault and battery conviction rather than one for aggravated malicious wounding.

"It was hard to have to accept that [in Jones' case] they were being convicted of a crime that really means you didn't do much more than illegally touch him, but we were stuck," the juror said.

The verdicts created an uproar on the courthouse lawn. When jurors returned the next day to resume the sentencing phase, some carried with them images of the angry crowds.

"There was definitely a shift about sentencing," the jury's foreman said. Some jurors went from having seen the case as a matter of self-defense to agreeing to a maximum sentence for involuntary manslaughter. Others who had first advocated a first-degree murder conviction were assuaged by the maximum sentence.

Jurors said some members were in tears over the draining sentencing negotiations.

On June 4, Warren formally sentenced the two young men, falling in line with the jury's recommendation for the 11-year maximum for Ethan.

Warren likened the verdicts to ones he has more often seen in traffic fatalities and hunting accidents.

But he said the crimes were more complex, and he singled out Joey Parrish as the primary instigator.

The younger Parrish possessed a criminal history worthy of a career felon, the judge said. Even though the younger Parrish shot no one, he deserved more time than his older cousin.

"The court has limited power to do things. It certainly can't restore life. It certainly can't heal injuries." Then he levied the maximum sentence allowed under law.

"It is 12 months in jail for the assault; it is five years in the penitentiary for the possession of the firearm; and, it's 10 years in the penitentiary for the involuntary manslaughter.

"And that is 10, five and one, which is 16."

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