Man enters plea of guilty in death

After a long day at work Nov. 8, 2007, Jayne Warren McGowan was settled for the night.

McGowan had her ironing board out and was watching a recorded episode of "Ugly Betty." The 26-year-old University of Virginia alumna had spent three months planning the AIDS/HIV Services Group's 20th-anniversary gala coming up two days later.

But then she heard knocking at her door. McGowan, hesitant, wouldn't open it until the men outside her St. Clair Avenue home identified themselves as police officers.

They were not. Charlottesville police said they were Michael Stuart Pritchett and his cousin, William Douglas Gentry Jr.

McGowan soon was dead, shot in the head repeatedly.

. . .

Gentry, 23, pleaded guilty in Charlottesville Circuit Court on Monday to capital murder, entering a home with the intent to commit a serious felony, robbery, use of a firearm in a robbery, use of a firearm in a burglary and use of a firearm in a murder.

Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.

Pritchett, 19, is scheduled for a five-day trial starting June 8.

According to Charlottesville police Detective James P. Mooney Jr., Gentry and Pritchett smoked marijuana the night of McGowan's death and were looking for money. McGowan's lights were on, Mooney said, and the men could see her computer from the window.

McGowan answered the door. Realizing what was happening, she said "no" and backed up toward a couch, according to a police interview with Pritchett recounted in a search-warrant affidavit. Mooney said Gentry demanded money from her.

"She opened her purse to show that there was no money," Mooney testified Monday. "At that time, she was shot in the left temple by Gentry."

. . .

During a phone call to his mother from jail, Gentry said he thought McGowan was pulling a gun, Mooney said in court.

While Pritchett went to find McGowan's laptop, Mooney said, Gentry shot McGowan twice more in the right side of her head with a .22-caliber revolver because she was gasping for air. Police believe that Pritchett fired a fourth shot with a .380-caliber pistol before the men left because McGowan still was trying to breathe.

Mooney said Gentry talked to his mother about the shooting from jail. Mooney, reading Gentry's words from a transcript, said, "'It wasn't nothing but a mistake . . . when she was sitting there gasping for air, Mom, we couldn't make her suffer.'"

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Claude Worrell said in court that the medical examiner's report showed that the .380 bullet was "instantly fatal." The .22 bullets did not pierce McGowan's brain, although the medical examiner determined that McGowan's cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.

. . .

Authorities said Gentry and Pritchett drove away in McGowan's car. About 2 p.m. the next day, worried co-workers visited her home to see why she hadn't reported to work.

McGowan's car was found two days after her death, Mooney said, and her laptop was discovered in the Rivanna River. Gentry sold his gun to another man, Mooney testified.

On Nov. 12, police arrested Pritchett and Gentry.

Gentry, who choked up in court Monday when pleading guilty to the firearm charge that mentions McGowan's murder, wanted to forgo a trial for the benefit of his family and the victim's family, defense attorney Lloyd Snook said.

Worrell said in court Monday that McGowan's family preferred that Gentry be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as opposed to the death penalty. At sentencing, Worrell said Gentry will face life in prison on three charges, including the capital-murder count, as well as 13 years on the firearms charges.
Tasha Kates is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.