Central Virginia is on pace to record more homicides this year than last, a trend largely driven by more killings in Richmond, suburban Henrico County and Petersburg. Forty-eight slayings occurred during the first six months of this year in the 24 localities that make up the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area, compared with 42 during the same period last year.

After days of testimony and deliberations, jurors in the Tahliek Taliaferro death case said they eventually came to see the tragic shootings as a sudden flare-up of reckless conduct that grew from a long-standing feud between Taliaferro and Joey Parrish. The entire incident might never have occurred had it not been for a series of coincidental events, jurors said.

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.

This daily column features short news items from some of the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. If you have a news item, call 649-6990 or e-mail us at . Henrico The Keep Henrico Beautiful Committee will honor winners of the 2009 Land Lover and Clean Business awards at tonight’s Henrico County Board of Supervisors meeting at 7 in the Government Center Board Room, 4301 E. Parham Road. The awards recognize one homeowner and one business in each magisterial district for maintaining an outstanding property through landscaping, lawn care, litter removal and recycling.“

A Powhatan County man accused of fatally stabbing and beating two Cumberland County residents was seen near the scene of the slayings out of breath, sweating and stained with blood about the time of the killings, court documents say. Authorities also say Tyrone Tyree Roads, charged with capital murder in the deaths of Ricky Thurston and Barry Shaver, was treated in Powhatan for a laceration to his hand sometime after the slayings.

A Powhatan County man has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of a man and a woman found slain Saturday evening in the yard of a Cartersville-area home. Tyrone Tyree Roads, 21, was arrested without incident in Richmond in the slayings of Ricky Thurston and Barry Shaver, a woman, both of Cumberland, Sheriff Darrell Hodges announced yesterday.

If Tahliek Taliaferro were alive, he would have walked across the stage at Powhatan High School yesterday to receive his diploma. He would have been 19 and among nearly 300 students who make up the Class of 2009. Instead, his teary grandmother accepted an honorary diploma for her grandson to a round of applause at yesterday’s graduation ceremony.

The shooting death of a high school football star and the life-altering wounding of his friend will send cousins Ethan Parrish and Joseph L. Parrish Jr. to prison until their mid-30s.

Minutes into the proceedings, Jean Taliaferro emerged from the courtroom, overcome. She stumbled down the brick walkway and collapsed into the arms of family and friends who fanned her with signs bearing the name of her dead grandson. “Tahliek’s still dead,“ she shouted through sobs. After recovering, she explained, “My daughter was talking about Tahliek and how I miss him. She got to crying, so I cried, too. I cry every day.“

Bill McKelway reports as the sentencing hearing for Joseph and Ethan Parrish gets underway in Powhatan.

State and local NAACP leaders want a Powhatan County judge to set aside involuntary-manslaughter verdicts today in Tahliek Taliaferro’s slaying and elevate them to convictions for first-degree murder. “The Powhatan community, people throughout the commonwealth and even nationwide are outraged at what is perceived as a miscarriage of justice in Powhatan,“ said King Salim Khalfani, state NAACP executive director.

A Powhatan County judge will be asked tomorrow to set aside guilty verdicts of involuntary manslaughter and assault against the younger of two men convicted in last summer’s shooting death of Tahliek Taliaferro. Attorney Craig S. Cooley, who represents 18-year-old Joseph L. Parrish Jr., says he will argue that there was insufficient evidence in the case to establish that Parrish aided or in any way abetted his cousin’s reckless, unpremeditated actions in Taliaferro’s death.

Twenty-seven days after the shooting death of Tahliek Taliaferro, the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a proclamation commending the community for its response. The proclamation said the community had made efforts to hold together, “and our young people have shown us the way forward toward healing during this horrific time.“

Civil-rights leaders yesterday predicted the possibility of arrests and large crowds this week when two men convicted of involuntary manslaughter of a popular high school athlete are sentenced. And the Rev. Curtis W. Harris, a leader on civilrights issues in Virginia for half a century, told a boisterous crowd outside the Powhatan County courthouse that the courts system has made the adjudication of Tahliek Taliaferro’s death “a legal lynching.“

As Tahliek Taliaferro’s family and friends march today in protest of recent court decisions in the shooting death of the popular Powhatan County teen, a larger storm is brewing. On Thursday, Ethan and Joey Parrish will be sentenced for the slaying of Taliaferro nearly a year ago. Ethan pulled the trigger that day last June, setting in motion a chain of events that has left a small-town community confused and angry. The Parrish cousins, along with their vehicle’s driver, Stephanie Reynolds, originally faced murder charges in Taliaferro’s killing. The Parrishes were convicted of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter this year, prompting uproar in Powhatan.