Virginia Beach police said they were called July 20 to a home in the 4100 block of White Beam Court for a report of a stabbing. When officers arrived, they were confronted by Marques Hasbrouck, who was armed with a 20-inch crowbar and a 27-inch metal rod, according to a release.

After Hasbrouck refused to drop the weapons, police said, they deployed a stun gun, but it wasn’t effective. Hasbrouck was charging at officers when more than one fired at him, police said. Inside the home, officers found his mother, Victoria Hasbrouck, dead, and two relatives seriously injured.

Police had been to the family’s home for an attack in November 2017, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. The document said that Hasbrouck, then 16, and his mother had a dispute over him playing video games and not taking his medications.

Hasbrouck pushed his mother and cursed at her, the affidavit said. When he tried to get some fast food that was on the table, she told him he couldn’t have any because of how he had talked to her, the document said.

“Marques grabbed a pair of scissors and attacked his mother,” the affidavit said. “He stabbed her multiple times in the face, head and body. He stated that he had ‘murderous intent’ and deliberately aimed for her eyes because ‘they are soft.'”

The document went on to say that while Hasbrouck was attacking his mother, he heard voices in his head urging him to continue the assault. It also said that he was being treated for mental illness.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

The 19-year-old sailor, Xavier Mitchell-Sandor, was one of three sailors on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier who took their own lives in April 2022. Their deaths triggered Navy investigations into the suicides and what could have prevented them.

According to the lawsuit, Mitchell-Sandor enlisted in August 2021. But after completing his initial military training in January 2022, the new seaman didn’t get assigned to a ship ready to go out to sea.

Instead, Mitchell-Sandor was sent to the Newport News shipyard, where the George Washington was in drydock undergoing its mid-life refueling and overhaul, a four-year project that ended up taking nearly six years.

“Upon his arrival to his duty assignment, Xavier discovered there were no adequate living quarters and services provided to him by the United States and/or (the shipyard), and that he was required to live aboard the drydocked aircraft carrier,” the lawsuit said.

That is, the ship’s commanding officer ordered that all junior sailors live on the vessel at least initially. Mitchell-Sandor was assigned to work as a security guard on the carrier, typically from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The aircraft carrier was mostly quiet overnight, but during Mitchell-Sandor’s off hours, “there was continuous noise on board” — bells, grinding, paint and rust removal and “frequent announcements.”

“Xavier could not sleep and became severely sleep deprived,” said the lawsuit, filed by the Reardon Law Firm of New London, Connecticut. “In order to rest, Xavier slept in his car frequently because he was unable to do so on the GW.”

But the lawsuit said Mitchell-Sandor was assigned a parking lot nearly a mile from the carrier, and  he “had to travel long distances by foot to obtain food and the essentials of living,” given that Newport News’ downtown is largely bereft of food options.

Moreover, the complaint said, electricity, heat, air conditioning and hot water on the ship would “routinely be shut off” without warning — with the outages lasting anywhere from a couple hours to two weeks. The sailors living on the warship also didn’t have access to TV or the internet, the complaint added.

Though Mitchell-Sandor’s family complained to the Navy about the conditions, nothing was done, the lawsuit maintains. Instead, the Navy instead “stigmatized” mental health care, looking down on sailors for trying to get help.

“Xavier grew increasingly depressed and suicidal due to the conditions onboard the GW, something he shared with shipmates and colleagues, as well as family and friends,” the lawsuit says.

After two other sailors in Mitchell-Sandor’s unit died by suicide in April 2022, he followed suit. On April 15, 2022, Mitchell-Sandor — “mentally and physically exhausted” — took his own life with his Navy-issued pistol.

“He took his own life in a state of complete despair due to the deplorable conditions inflicted upon him and other junior Naval personnel,” the lawsuit maintains.

The federal lawsuit — filed in Mitchell-Sandor’s home state of Connecticut in March but moved to U.S. District Court in Newport News this week — asserts that Mitchell-Sandor’s death was the result of the defendants’ “negligent acts” and their “failure to provide him with basic living necessities.”

The lawsuit names as defendants the United States of America and Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News Shipbuilding’s parent company. Mitchell-Sandor’s father, Janos Sandor, is listed as the plaintiff and estate administrator.

Though the shipyard was initially expected to return the USS George Washington to the Navy in August 2021 — or five months before Mitchell-Sandor was assigned to the carrier — the project wasn’t actually finished until May 2023.

The Navy’s contract with the shipyard, the lawsuit said, included $75 million for living accommodations for sailors during the project. But the complaint asserts that the yard shifted much of that money to other projects, “in violation of its contractual obligation.”

“As a result of the motivation of (Huntington Ingalls) to place profits over safety, the living conditions at the shipyard deteriorated,” the lawsuit says.

The suit alleges that the Navy failed to act when Mitchell-Sandor was “struggling to adjust to life” on the ship. Among other things, it contends, the Navy did nothing when enlisted leadership “learned Xavier was sleeping in his vehicle.”

The Navy failed to “provide additional assistance” to sailors who had to work the overnight shift, and senior sailors failed “to notify anyone that Xavier was visibly struggling.”

Moreover, the suit contends the Navy failed to provide Mitchell-Sandor with counseling or tell him about mental health resources, failed to help him find housing off the ship, and failed “to follow up with Xavier after (his) family members notified them of safety concerns.”

In addition, the lawsuit says, the Navy failed to provide adequate training to sailors on suicide prevention.

On May 29, Huntington Ingalls lawyers asked that the case be dismissed. They contended that the Connecticut federal court had no jurisdiction over the matter and asserted that the company can’t be blamed for Mitchell-Sandor’s actions.

“The Complaint does not contain a single allegation that (Huntington Ingalls) knew or had reason to know that Mr. Mitchell-Sandor had mental health issues,” said the lawyers with the firm Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, adding that his suicide “was not reasonably foreseeable,”

Moreover, they said, Huntington Ingalls “did not owe any duty to Mr. Mitchell-Sandor to prevent his suicide or to protect him from his infliction of self-harm,” the motion says, noting that the plaintiffs did not specify which contractual provisions the company allegedly breached.

“The Decedent’s act of suicide, and that tragic act alone, produced his … death,” the motion says, asserting that Mitchell-Sandor “failed to care for his own mental health” before ending his life.

“Our thoughts remain with Seaman Sandor’s family and his shipmates, and our shipbuilders, as we expressed at his passing,” Todd Corillo, a spokesperson for Huntington Ingalls, added in a statement Thursday.

“We at (Huntington Ingalls Industries) work side-by-side with our U.S. Navy teammates, and we prioritize their safety — and that of our own employees and visitors to our shipyards — as we strive every day to advance the national security mission of our customers,” Corillo wrote. “We reserve further comment due to pending litigation.”

On July 22, lawyers for all parties agreed to have the case transferred to U.S. District Court in Newport News, across the street from the shipyard.

A Navy spokeswoman at the Pentagon on Friday referred a call about the lawsuit to the Justice Department, which could not immediately be reached.

Court documents show the Navy previously declined an out-of-court wrongful death claim from Mitchell-Sandor’s family. The Navy told them service members are precluded from suing for injuries and deaths arising from their service.

The Navy concluded in a December 2022 report that the three suicides in April of that year were unrelated.

That report said that Mitchell-Sandor was sleep deprived from juggling his 12-hour workdays with 8-hour commutes to visit family and friends in Connecticut and South Carolina. It also said he had undiagnosed depression.

The Navy’s report said Mitchell-Sandor was offered several opportunities to switch living spaces on the carrier, but he declined. Yet the report said senior enlisted sailors should have encouraged Mitchell-Sandor to relocate off the ship and should have tried to better understand why he was sleeping in his car.

“This was a time for intrusive leadership,” the report said.

In April 2023, the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command issued another report into the three George Washington suicides, finding that the Navy needs to better incentivize shipbuilders to get projects done on time so sailors aren’t living for long stretches in industrial shipyards.

That report added that the area of the city around Newport News Shipbuilding needs improvement.

“There remains inadequate parking, transportation, access to food and nutritional options, training space, physical fitness facilities, and housing options available to support the number of Sailors assigned to ships and submarines in the shipyard,” the report said.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Ronald Ivan Scott Jr., 35, of Florida, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and related charges in the April 5, 2022 slaying of 23-year-old Joshua Emmanuel Owusu-Koramoah.

The cousins were roommates at Owusu-Koramoah’s Coliseum-area townhouse at the time of the killing.

Owusu-Koramoah, a former standout linebacker at Bethel High School who also played at William & Mary, was the older brother of Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.

Drew Barker, a Bethel High teammate of Joshua’s, said the two were going to meet at 9 that morning at the Cracker Barrel on West Mercury Boulevard. But when Owusu-Koramoah had not shown by 9:25 a.m., Barker grew worried.

“It was automatically heartbreaking when he wasn’t answering phone calls, because he was the most punctual, respectful, humble and reliable person I know,” Barker told the Daily Press after the slaying.

Barker drove to Owusu-Koramoah’s home off Cunningham Drive just before 10 a.m., just as police and firefighters were arriving there. They found him near his front door. He had been bludgeoned  to death.

Police investigators found broken glass near Owusu-Koramoah’s body, an open wallet on his chest, and signs of a fight. Prosecutors believe the killing stemmed from a dispute over the use of his car.

After the fight, surveillance footage shows Scott buying gasoline at a nearby 7-Eleven on Executive Drive. Prosecutors say he doused the gasoline over Owusu-Koramoah’s body and spread it around the home before setting it ablaze.

Owusu-Koramoah’s dog, “J.J.,” died of smoke inhalation.

Scott was arrested in Florida three days later, driving Owusu-Koramoah’s Chevrolet Malibu and still wearing bloody clothes. He was later extradited to Hampton on charges of second-degree murder, arson, grand larceny and animal cruelty.

Attendees at the July 15 sentencing hearing included Owusu-Koramoah’s family, friends and a large contingent of students from Hampton Christian Academy, where he taught before he was killed.

Owusu-Koramoah was a man of immense kindness, several people at the hearing testified.

Hampton Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Dylan Arnold said the outpouring for Owusu-Koramoa also included 13 “victim impact statements” sent to the judge and a crowd so large that it necessitated a televised feed into an adjacent courtroom.

Owusu-Koramoah played football, basketball and soccer at Bethel, where he excelled academically and was enrolled in the Governor’s School for Science and Technology, according to a Daily Press story in 2015. He also sang in the choir at Liberty Baptist Church.

He played three seasons as a reserve linebacker at William & Mary, where he majored in chemistry, and began teaching at Hampton Christian in August 2021.

Owusu-Koramoah’s mother, Beverly Mabson-James, 63, said her son’s kind ways had no barriers.

“Our Creator only lent him to me and the rest of the world, (whose) life was touched by his presence,” Mabson-James wrote in a victim impact statement to Hampton Circuit Court Judge Michael Gaten.

“White people, Black people, rich and poor people, smart and unsmart people, he was touching … all walks of life,” she added.

Mabson-James testified about her son meeting an amputee at a bus stop, a woman late for her doctor’s visit. Owusu-Koramoah “took time out of his day to take this person to her medical appointment,” Arnold said.

Mabson-James wrote that she spoke with Owusu-Koramoah only a few hours before he was killed — as he waited on Scott to return to the town home with Owusu-Koramoah’s car and house keys.

Mabson-James was angry about it, she wrote, but Owusu-Koramoah was much more calm, telling her “the car was (a material thing), and we could always get another one,” she wrote in her letter to the judge.

Owusu-Koramoah’s brothers also testified at the sentencing hearing, including Jeremiah — the NFL player.

Among other things, Jeremiah talked of a time he and Joshua were traveling on a plane — but as they were leaving the aircraft, Jeremiah realized his brother was no longer walking next to him.

“Jeremiah turns around and (Joshua) is helping an elderly person down the aisle of the plane,” Arnold said.

The principal at Hampton Christian, Shirlyne Heard, termed Owusu-Koramoah a “true angel,” telling Gaten he was always positive and engaging with the students.

“His character was truly contagious,” Heard wrote. “Joshua’s ability to put people at ease and his respect for everyone he encountered were remarkable.”

Teresita Akers, the mother of a Hampton Christian student, talked about how her son immediately connected with “Mr. O” — that he “made learning fun” and “connected with each child based on their interests.”

“He was so excited to have a young teacher that he could relate to,” Akers wrote about her son. Mr. O’s death, she wrote, greatly hurt the teen.

State sentencing guidelines carried a range of 9 to 22 years. Arnold said that modest range stemmed from arson being listed as the case’s primary charge, since that has a stiffer maximum punishment under law than second-degree murder.

Arnold asked Gaten for 40 years of active prison time.

Scott’s attorney, Hampton Deputy Hampton Public Defender Hilary Merica, asked for a sentence within the state guidelines, contending Scott deserves credit for taking responsibility and pleading guilty without a plea agreement.

Merica could not be reached this week.

Gaten sentenced Scott to 40 years on the murder — and 55 years of suspended time combined in the arson, grand larceny and animal cruelty counts.

The judge told those in attendance that homicides are very heavy to deal with, given the emotions involved and the sense of loss to the families.

“But he said that this is the one case he can remember where he will go home with a sense of hope — because of who Joshua was and the impact Joshua had on the community,” Arnold said.

Most of Owusu-Koramoah immediate family was satisfied with the sentence, the prosecutor said. But the victim’s father — Andrews Owusu-Koramoah of Stafford County — told the Daily Press that his son was “vulnerable” and that his slaying deserved a far stiffer punishment.

“That’s not what we were looking for,” he said of the 40-year term. “We were praying for life without parole, because what (Scott) did was very evil … A family member was trying to support you, and you end up killing him.”

Scott is being held at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail, awaiting a transfer to a state prison.

Reporter Marty O’Brien contributed to this report.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

The charges stemmed from the men carrying concealed handguns into a Gloucester School Board meeting on July 11, 2023, at the T.C. Walker Education Center. That led to a lengthy parking lot dispute with sheriff’s deputies about handing over the firearms.

Under state law, felony convictions would have caused the men to lose their right to carry firearms going forward.

But the jury decided in the men’s favor after just over an hour of deliberations.

“I feel relieved and humbled,” one of the defendants, Derek Matthew Coblentz, 33, of Prince Edward County, said after the verdict.

Losing his gun rights and getting stripped of his right to vote — another right lost to felony convictions — “were the two top things I was worried about,” he said.

“The jury made the right decision,” added Trevor Jacob Herrin, 29, of James City County, who was seen as the leader of the group that night, following the verdict. “It was an open and shut case.”

As a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, a conviction against Herrin on the felony count could have impacted his career, his parents said.

Also acquitted of the charges Friday were Christopher Carlo Cordasco, 27, of James City County; and Antonio Ivan Hernandez, 28, of Augusta County.

The jury convicted Herrin of a separate misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed handgun that night, given that his permit to do so had expired. Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Shaw sentenced Herrin to 30 days in jail, but stayed that pending an appeal.

“We’re disappointed,” Gloucester Commonwealth’s Attorney John T. Dusewicz said of the acquittals on the felony charges. “But we respect the jury’s decision.”

But the prosecutor didn’t apologize for prosecuting the case.

“I’m always going to fight to keep guns out of schools and to keep schools safe,” Dusewicz said. “We took it to the mat and didn’t offer a plea deal. The only deal we offered was a fair trial.”

The charges stem from an incident in which the men carried concealed handguns into a Gloucester School Board meeting on July 11, 2023.

Gloucester Sheriff’s Deputy P.W. Lutz, working security that night, testified that he noticed Herrin was carrying a knife in a holster in the back of his shirt, and that the men split up and sat in different sections of the auditorium.

Lutz kept a close eye on Herrin, testifying that he saw “a bulge where the handle of a firearm would be.” At one point, he said, Herrin moved his arms and the deputy saw the gun under his shirt.

The men came to the meeting at the T.C. Walker Education Center a month after Herrin spoke at a prior board meeting in support of then-Gloucester School Board member Darren Post. After that meeting, Herrin said he found his tires were slashed, so he came to the July meeting to express his displeasure with the board.

“I would strongly recommend caution and reflection before engaging in anything like that, especially with someone you don’t know, with capabilities you don’t know,” Herrin told board members.

The five men — the four armed men and one unarmed one — left the meeting about 6:45 p.m. Lutz said he followed them into the parking lot and asked them to wait before he went to speak with others for about 30 to 45 minutes to determine his next step.

When he returned, he told the men that the T.C. Walker Education Center was a school building but that “we’re operating on the assumption that you didn’t know,” according to body camera footage shown at the trial.

Lutz implied that the men weren’t being arrested, but that he would put their names and gun serial numbers into an incident report. Herrin at first objected, saying they could email the deputy the serial numbers later.

“We’re not disarming,” Herrin said, according to the footage. “We’re at an impasse now.”

“We have families to go home to also,” one of the men told the deputies.

Lutz then offered a compromise: The men could continue to hold their firearms while he wrote down each gun’s serial number. The men agreed to that, and also provided their driver’s licenses as identification.

But Gloucester Sheriff Darrell Warren learned of the situation while the men were still in the parking lot, telling his deputies that the men’s guns needed to be confiscated as evidence.

During this week’s trial, Dusewicz sought to introduce as evidence an ensuing 20-minute phone call between Warren and Herrin, captured on one deputy’s body camera. But Judge Shaw barred that conversation from being played for jurors this week, saying the timing of when they turned over the guns wasn’t relevant to whether they had them on school grounds.

In an interview with the Daily Press last year, Warren said he told Herrin at the time that he believed the group had violated the state law banning guns in schools. He told Herrin he would talk to prosecutors the next day, but that in the meantime they needed to hand over their guns.

“I said if I’m wrong, I’m going to apologize and personally deliver your guns back,” Warren said in the interview.

After lots of back and forth, Warren said, the men finally ended up relinquishing their weapons and emptying their pockets. Aside from the weapons, court documents said, the men had medical trauma kits, tourniquets, handcuffs and extra ammunition.

The men were arrested several days later.

There was no dispute at this week’s trial that the men carried concealed handguns into the board meeting that evening.

The trial instead revolved in large part on the language of the state’s law banning guns in schools.

In this case, the dispute centered on whether a pre-school program called ‘Head Start’ located in the building — but closed for the summer — barred the men from carrying guns into the school board meeting.

State law says guns are barred from any preschool, or elementary, middle or high school in the state, including the building and grounds. Guns are also banned from “the property of any child day center,” the state statute says.

But the law also says that the provisions on “child day centers” — as well as private or religious preschools — “shall apply only during the operating hours” of that facility.

Dusewicz introduced trial evidence to show that the Head Start program is indeed a “school.”

The Head Start program follows the Gloucester Public School calendar year, is advertised on the school division’s website, and has classrooms, teachers, and a state-mandated curriculum on “numbers, letters, shapes, colors, art and music.”

The fact that Head Start is a public pre-school — and not merely a child day center — means the gun ban applies, Dusewicz contended. How many other day care centers, he asked, are closed for the summer?

“The evidence is uncontested that Gloucester Head Start is a public school program,” Dusewicz told the jury. “You can’t have guns there at any time. Guns in pre-school is not a great combination.”

But the attorneys for the four men asserted that the state law’s exception for “child day centers” is clear — that firearms aren’t banned when a Head Start or other child care centers aren’t in operation.

The defense lawyers repeatedly flashed a copy of the Gloucester Head Start’s “child day center” license from the Virginia Department of Education.

“This isn’t from Jeff’s rent-a-license,” said Jeffrey Everhart, an attorney for Cordasco, as he held the Education Department license up for jurors to see. “The commonwealth can’t rise above this evidence … It’s a dagger in the heart of the commonwealth’s case.”

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

The ruling issued Thursday from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema overturns three of the 10 counts of conviction against Ali Al-Timimi. But she upheld other counts that could leave him with decades of prison time beyond the 15 years he already served.

Al-Timimi, 60, was indicted in 2004, and convicted and sentenced in 2005. Prosecutors said the U.S.-born scholar, who grew up in the nation’s capital and had earned his doctorate in computational biology shortly before his arrest, enjoyed rockstar status among his small group of followers.

At a private gathering a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Timimi told his followers — some of whom trained for jihad by playing paintball in the Virginia woods — that an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and the West loomed, and that Muslims were obliged to defend the Taliban if they had the ability to do so, according to trial testimony.

Several members did travel as far as Pakistan and received military training from a militant group called Lashkar-e-Taiba, but none ever actually joined the Taliban.

After Thursday’s ruling from Brinkema, what happens next for Al-Timimi is unclear. He was released from prison in 2020 and placed on home confinement, partly because of the coronavirus pandemic and partly because his appeals have been bogged down in delays for nearly 20 years.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond still has not heard Al-Timimi’s initial appeal of his conviction, but it’s expected the appeal can now proceed. Among other issues, Al-Timimi’s lawyers have contended that his conviction violates the First Amendment by punishing him for his speech.

Al-Timimi would presumably remain on home confinement while the appeal is heard unless prosecutors or the judge sought to have him returned to prison.

The counts that were overturned relate to whether they were based on an unconstitutionally vague “crime of violence.” The issue stems from Supreme Court cases over the last nine years that have affected many criminal cases across the country.

Prosecutors had contended the convictions should stay in place, but Brinkema said soliciting treason is not inherently a crime of violence and could be accomplished “through aiding and comforting the enemies, which does not necessarily require the use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force.”

She rejected allegations that prosecutors failed to disclose information that the government sought to use another northern Virginia cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, against Al-Timimi as an informant, and that al-Awlaki tried unsuccessfully to lure Al-Timimi into illegal conduct as part of a government sting.

Al-Awlaki later left the U.S. and became a leader in al-Qaeda before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike.

Prosecutors have long argued that they disclosed everything they were supposed to disclose about the meeting between the two clerics. Brinkema, in her ruling Thursday, confirmed that she reviewed the documents in question years ago and had also concluded that the defense was not entitled to any of the information because it did nothing to suggest al-Timimi’s innocence.

Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia nor Al-Timimi’s lawyers responded to emails seeking comment Friday.

According to trial testimony Thursday, a Gloucester sheriff’s deputy saw five men walking into the meeting at the T.C. Walker Education Center on July 11, 2023.

Gloucester Sheriff’s Deputy P.W. Lutz, who was working security at the meeting, first noticed that one of the men, later identified as James City County resident Trevor J. Herrin, was carrying a knife in a holster in the back of his shirt.

The men split up and sat in different sections of the room, Lutz said.

Lutz kept a close eye on Herrin, seeing “a bulge where the handle of a firearm would be.” At one point, he said, Herrin moved his arms and the deputy was able to see the gun for “a couple of seconds.”

According to court documents, Herrin was upset about what happened at a School Board meeting a month earlier, when he came to speak on behalf of his friend, then-School Board member Darren Post.

Herrin said that when he got back to his car after the June 2023 meeting, he saw that his tire was flat. Later, he said, he realized it has been slashed with a knife.

Herrin took the podium again at the July 2023 meeting, saying he wanted an apology for the slashed tires.

“I would strongly recommend caution and reflection before engaging in anything like that, especially with someone you don’t know, with capabilities you don’t know,” he said at the time. (The Sheriff’s Office appears to dispute the tire slashing, saying there’s no video evidence Herrin’s tires being slashed at the June meeting).

4 men charged with bringing firearms to Gloucester County School Board meeting

The five men left the meeting about 6:45 p.m. after the July 2023 School Board meeting, Lutz testified.

He said he followed them into the parking lot. He asked them to remain where they were to allow him to talk with others, then came back to them about 30 minutes later.

“We’re operating on the assumption that you didn’t know,” Lutz told the men, according to body camera footage shown at Thursday’s trial.

Lutz implied that they weren’t being arrested, but that he would put their names and gun serial numbers into an incident report. Herrin acknowledged he was carrying a weapon, and Lutz asked the others if they were too, the footage shows.

“Probably,” one man responded.

It turned out that four of the five men in the group were armed. Herrin at first objected to the men providing sheriff’s deputies with their weapons’ serial numbers, saying they could email the the deputy the serial numbers later.

“We’re not disarming,” Herrin said, according to the footage. “We’re at an impasse now.”

But Lutz then offered a compromise: The men could continue to hold their firearms — with their fingers away from the handle and the trigger — while Lutz wrote down each gun’s serial number on his notebook.

“We have families to go home to, also,” one of the men told the deputies, in a comment that appeared to have a calming impact.

But when Gloucester Sheriff Darrell Warren learned of the situation while the men were still in the parking lot, he told his deputies the men needed to be charged with a crime.

According to body camera footage of a conversation between Lutz and Sheriff’s Lt. Nick Leaver at the scene, Warren also wanted them to hand over their guns.

“That’s per the sheriff,” Leaver told Lutz on the recording.

During the trial, Gloucester Commonwealth’s Attorney John Dusewicz sought to introduce as evidence the 20-minute phone call between Sheriff Warren and Herrin.

Warren told the Daily Press last year that a deputy put the sheriff on speaker phone with Herrin as the deputy’s body camera footage rolled.

Warren said he told Herrin he believed the group had violated the state law banning guns in schools. He told Herrin he would talk to prosecutors the next day, but that in the meantime they needed to hand over their guns.

“I said if I’m wrong, I’m going to apologize and personally deliver your guns back,” Warren told the Daily Press.

After lots of back and forth, Warren said, the men finally ended up relinquishing their weapons and emptying their pockets. Aside from the weapons, court documents said, the men had medical trauma kits, tourniquets, handcuffs and extra ammunition.

But on Thursday, the men’s lawyers objected to that phone call being played for jurors. Given that the men admitted to having the guns, the lawyers said, the only reason to play the footage was to “inflame the jury” against the men.

Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Shaw agreed, barring that footage from the trial. The judge said the timing of the men turning over their guns — whether they did it that day or a week later — was not relevant to whether they illegally possessed a handgun on school grounds.

The four men are charged with carrying firearms on school grounds, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Aside from the 29-year-old Herrin, the men include Derek Coblentz, 33, of Prince Edward County; Christopher Cardasco, 27, of James City County; and Antonio Hernandez, 28, of Augusta County.

The men’s lawyers maintain that the charges should be tossed. They assert that just because a building is owned by a school division — as is the T.C. Walker building — doesn’t make it a “school” under the language of the state’s gun law.

While guns are barred from schools and school functions statewide, school board meeting spaces and administration offices don’t typically fall under the general rule.

In this case, however, the T.C. Walker Education Center separately houses a Head Start program, which is a public preschool that Warren said puts it under the state’s gun ban.

The Head Start center was not open at the time of the School Board meeting in question. But Warren maintains that the entire “building and grounds” falls under that gun prohibition 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Armed men protested outside an empty Gloucester school building. Charges could still be coming.

On a Saturday night about five weeks after the July 2023 arrests, eight armed men — with camouflage and long guns — protested outside the T.C. Walker building in the name of the four men arrested.

At the time, Warren said he made the decision not to engage the armed protestors, in part because no one was in the building at the time.

The trial will resume Friday morning with jury constructions and closing arguments.

Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Judge Devon R. Paige agreed to order the evaluations for Hilary D. Johnson II and Z’ibreyea Parker after requests from their court-appointed attorneys. Johnson is represented by J.D. Garrett, and Parker by Trevor Robinson.

The couple had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Thursday to determine if there was sufficient evidence to send the case on to a grand jury. The hearing was postponed, however, after the defense lawyers requested the mental health exams.

When the couple took their 9-day-old daughter to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters on May 4, the child was already cold to the touch, according to investigators. She was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Further examination showed the child had severe burns on both feet, “splash burns” on other parts of her body, lacerations, and numerous bruises. An autopsy would later determine she’d also suffered broken ribs, a broken clavicle, and showed signs of shaken baby syndrome.

Parker and Johnson, who were living in a tent at the time, were arrested within hours of arriving at the hospital. They were charged with felony child abuse, but the charges were upgraded to murder once the medical examiner ruled their daughter’s death a homicide. Both are being held without bond in the city jail.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

The appeals court decision dealt a significant blow in Marine Maj. Joshua Mast’s yearslong legal quest to keep the child, who was orphaned on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2019.

Mast and his wife, Stephanie, convinced the courts in his hometown, rural Fluvanna County, Virginia, to grant him an adoption of the child, even though she remained in Afghanistan as the government there tracked down her extended family and reunited her with them. The family fled Afghanistan with thousands of other evacuees when the Taliban took over in the summer of 2021. Once she arrived in the United States, Mast used the Fluvanna County documents to convince federal government officials to take the child from her Afghan relatives and give her to him.

She turns five years old this month. The Masts have insisted they are her legal parents and “acted admirably” to save a child in a desperate and dangerous situation. The Afghan family, who challenged Mast’s adoption, have not seen her for nearly three years.

The child’s fate is still in limbo: The decision by the appellate court Tuesday does not clarify who should ultimately get to raise the girl, and she remains with the Mast family for now. No government agencies involved would clarify Tuesday what the next steps might entail, or what their role might be in determining where the child should live as the remaining legal fight unfolds.

The Masts could appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court and ask that Tuesday’s decision not be enforced through that process.

All the parties involved have been forbidden by the court to speak to the press about this case. Attorneys for the Masts and the Afghan couple did not return phone calls. A lawyer appointed by the court to represent the interests of the child, who is referred to in court records as Baby Doe to protect her identity, also did not respond.

Several legal organizations supporting the Afghan couple said they were encouraged.

National Center for Youth Law senior attorney Becky Wolozin said that by “clearly stating that the Masts have no legal rights over Baby Doe, the Court refused to legitimize their unlawful actions – actions which have led to profound and unnecessary suffering.”

Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Claude Worrell last May vacated Mast’s adoption order, which was granted by another judge in 2020, but left in place a custody order that allowed the child to stay with the Masts. A three-judge appellate panel heard arguments in the fall, and issued a 23-page order Tuesday that dissolved Mast’s legal guardianship over the girl.

Appellate Judge Daniel E. Ortiz wrote in Tuesday’s order that Mast’s adoption “did not fit into any” of the criteria required by state law. He said the “procedural errors” that led to it were “so outside the scope of the adoption code that the circuit court lacked the power” to sign the adoption. He also acknowledged that Mast failed to inform the court of key developments, including that the government of Afghanistan never gave up its claim to the girl, that she had been given to Afghan relatives and that a federal court had already rebuffed his efforts to stop that reunification.

How exactly the court justified granting the Marine the adoption in the first place remains shrouded in secrecy. The Associated Press filed in court to get the case unsealed. In January 2023, Worrell granted that request, ordering the case opened to the public. But more than 18 months later, the court continues to keep the entire file hidden despite numerous letters sent by lawyers representing The Associated Press.

The appellate panel directed the circuit court to dismiss all adoption proceedings and conduct a hearing on the Afghan couple’s adoption petition, which is currently pending before the court. The Masts may file their own petition as well, Ortiz wrote.

Retired Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore, who issued the original adoption order, declined to comment on the case.

The U.S. government has insisted in court that Mast never had any claim to this child, and that she be returned immediately to her Afghan family. Justice Department lawyers have written that allowing the child to remain with the Marine could have broad consequences for American foreign policy: from threatening international security pacts to endangering troops stationed abroad by feeding Islamic extremist propaganda.

But the federal government has not stepped in outside of court filings to steer a pathway for the girl to be returned to the Afghans.

The State and Defense departments referred AP to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, the Virginia Attorney General and the FBI all also declined on Tuesday to comment. US Citizenship and Immigration Services said the situation is not under their purview.

A spokesperson for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which handles major criminal investigations for the Marines and the Navy, confirmed that the agency is “conducting a thorough investigation into this situation.”

Major Joshua Mast remains on active duty during the investigation, said Maj. Johnny Henderson at the Marine Forces Special Operations Command. “To protect the integrity of the investigative process, no other information is available at this time.”

On Monday, a grand jury indicted Sean A. Fearon, 22, on charges of sexual penetration with an object, abduction with intent to defile, and concealing or destroying evidence. Fearon was arrested later that day and ordered held without bond.

He initially was placed in protective custody in the Virginia Beach city jail, but was transferred Tuesday to another facility, jail spokeswoman Toni Guagenti said. She declined to say where he was taken, but online records indicate he was moved to the Chesapeake jail.

Virginia Beach attorney Tom Sheppard told Circuit Judge Afshin Farashahi on Tuesday he’s been retained to represent Fearon, and was trying to get a bond hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Farashahi told the defense lawyer he plans to recuse himself from the case because Fearon is a local police officer. The judge said his colleagues on the Circuit Court likely will do the same, which is typical in cases involving local law enforcement. The Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office recused itself from the case, and a special prosecutor from Chesapeake was appointed to handle it.

A court document filed by special prosecutor Madeline Woodruff on Monday said Fearon has been a Virginia Beach police officer since June 2022. It also said he’d been in the United States for four years, and has significant family ties in Jamaica. Woodruff asked in her motion that his indictment be sealed until after his arrest to protect the alleged victim, as well as the officers assigned to take him into custody.

Virginia Beach police said in a statement Monday the department began investigating Fearon after receiving a complaint June 14. His police powers were suspended and he was placed on administrative duty, the department said. A checklist for bail in his court file said he was suspended without pay.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newport News, Michael Trenton Rusk asserts that the James City County Police Department and the county discriminated against him on the basis of sex by allowing the abuses to continue.

Rusk, 26, wants $5.5 million in compensatory damages, as well as $300,000 in punitive damages, plus attorney fees.

The federal lawsuit, filed in June by Williamsburg attorney William Akers, is separate from the criminal case now underway against Rusk.

Rusk is charged with malicious wounding and a gun count after shooting his superior officer, Sgt. Christopher L. Gibson, outside a Scotland Street bar in January 2023. A trial is now scheduled for September in Williamsburg Circuit Court.

Both officers were placed on administrative leave following the shooting. But according to documents filed with the lawsuit, James City County Administrator Scott Stevens fired Rusk in May.

Aside from citing the two pending charges, Stevens’ termination letter said Rusk “refused to answer questions” during an internal investigation into the shooting, and that he “exchanged sexual and racially derogatory images using county-owned devices.”

Gibson, 40, retired May 31, James City County human resources director Patrick Teague said Tuesday. Teague said the retirement was Gibson’s own choice.

Rusk’s lawsuit asserts that James City County and its police department violated his right to be free from workplace discrimination and sexual harassment from Gibson, who was in a managerial role.

“Mr. Rusk has been subject to illegal and intolerable conditions, including statements and other inappropriate and unwanted behaviors from (Gibson) that created an offensive and hostile work environment,” the complaint asserts. “Such behavior and actions were ignored by the Defendants, because Mr. Rusk is a male.”

Instead of stopping the abuse, the complaint contends, the county jailed and fired Rusk. “The Defendants’ conduct has completely ruined Mr. Rusk’s life,” the lawsuit asserts.

James City County Attorney Adam Kinsman and Police Chief Mark Jamison — who became chief several months after the 2023 shooting — did not return calls Tuesday.

“We’re unable to comment on pending litigation,” said Tayleb Brooks, a spokesman for the police department. “We take the allegations very seriously. We are very committed to keeping a safe and hospitable workplace for all of our employees.”

Since Jamison took over as chief, Brooks said, “we have implemented policies to ensure that a lot of changes have been made and that we will move forward in a positive direction.”

Rusk began with the county police department in 2021. Gibson’s opinion of him and his work were vital to Rusk’s chances for advancement, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit contends that from December 2021 to January 2023, Gibson increasingly made unwelcome sexual advances, to include hand holding, touching, sexual comments and “stalking.”

In September 2022, Rusk suggested to Gibson that they use the Life360 tracking system to keep track of each other, with the lawsuit saying he made that suggestion as a “safety tool.”

But Rusk began feeling stalked when Gibson would show up unannounced at locations both on and off duty. That caused Rusk to remove Gibson as a contact on the app, with Gibson getting upset at the change, the suit says.

Gibson would also track Rusk’s whereabouts by way of a “mobile data computer” installed in the police cars, the lawsuit asserts.

“Mr. Rusk was subject to Gibson’s pervasive and severe attempts to groom an inappropriate romantic relationship and entice a sexual response,” the lawsuit says, attaching a series of hundreds of text messages between the officers.

While Gibson appears to have initiated most of the text exchanges submitted to the court, Rusk did not voice objection to the nature of the discussions.

They exchanged playful banter on songs and lyrics, intermixed with conversation about work, and lots of flirtatious converstation.

“Just a reminder that you’re really attractive,” Gibson wrote on Dec. 7, 2022, with a smiley face emoji. Rusk replies with the “grinning with sweat” emoji, and a blue heart.

When Rusk didn’t show up for a bowling group one day, another court document said, Gibson told him that the only reason he bowls with the group was to see Rusk, according to a letter in the court file from Rusk’s therapist.

In another text exchange, Gibson later offers to bring Rusk’s nicotine dispenser to him, and to “holler … if you want to play.”

Later Gibson refers to himself numerous times as “daddy,” asking, “Coming to see daddy?” and says he’s “having flashbacks to being alone in the church parking lot again.”

Gibson at one point complains about “being ghosted,” saying: “How is it that you’ve been on the way for 30 minutes now?”

“Mikey coming to daddy?? Mikey not,” Gibson said in another text exchange, adding a sad face emoji.

“Awhhhhhh honey, big sad face too,” Rusk responds with a broken heart emoji, explaining how dinner with others took longer than expected.

“Well, there’s always next time,” Gibson responds with a wink.

“Good morning sweetie!” Gibson wrote to Rusk in October 2022. “Just wanted to make sure you have something good on your phone when you woke up,” adding a kiss face and a blue heart emoji.

“Awh, thanks hunny!” Rusk replies, with a kiss face and a heart emoji.

“Come to daddy,” Gibson responds.

Later, when Rusk talks about missing a particular woman’s texts, Gibson gives him some advice: “Leave the few good memories where they belong. In the past. Look ahead to the future … In the meantime, I’ll fill in the blanks.”

When they briefly discuss erectile dysfunction, Gibson tells Rusk he would be “en route to fix … the issue,” saying he wants to ensure that Rusk is “fit for duty,” adding a wink face.

In January 2023, Gibson questions Rusk about being removed from the Life360 app. Though Rusk tells him he’s still on the work version of the app, Gibson appears hurt.

“Why can’t you leave me on personal,” Gibson asks, according to the texts. “I’m mildly offended … I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The lawsuit contends that Rusk’s seemingly willing participation in the texts “are a product of a combination of factors,” including Gibson’s supervisory role, “the control and influence he had over Mr. Rusk’s future within the Police Department,” and the culture of the department.

“Mr. Rusk fell prey to Gibson’s grooming tactics and felt the only option was to appease Gibson,” the lawsuit says. Akers attached a three-page letter from a licensed therapist, Kim Pinto of Healing Project LLC, and outside investigation reports into the department’s culture.

It all culminated on Jan. 24, 2023.

“After taking his subordinate to multiple breweries and bars, Gibson made unwanted advances and began to sexually assault and batter Mr. Rusk relentlessly,” the lawsuit contends. That included blocking him from calling for help and stopping him from fleeing.

That “left Mr. Rusk with no other viable option but to reasonably defend himself, given the circumstances as he perceived them,” the lawsuit asserts.

The lawsuit also cites Rusk’s visit to Gibson’s boss, Lt. G.E. White, in early January 2023 to complain about Gibson.

In a memo that White wrote in April 2023 — three months after the shooting — White recalled that Rusk asked to speak privately in White’s office, telling him “of an uncomfortable situation that was occurring between him and Sgt. Gibson.”

White said Rusk told him that Gibson was “overly friendly and always being near where Rusk was at work,” often backing him up on calls and stops. Rusk also told White about the Life360 issue, saying “he believed that it wasn’t a coincidence” that Gibson would suddenly show up at his off-duty locations.

But White’s memo said Rusk did not want White to speak with Gibson about it, saying Rusk told him he’d talk with Gibson himself. White added that Rusk approached him about a week later and said he spoke with Gibson and that all was well.

The lawsuit denies that Rusk told White that he would handle the situation himself, and denies that Rusk said a week later that all was well. The lawsuit asserts that White “had a duty to report and investigate” Rusk’s complaints under county policy, but “recklessly disregarded” that duty.

When reached on Tuesday, Gibson referred a call to his attorney, Nick Simopoulos of Richmond, who couldn’t immediately be reached.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com