Man pleads guilty in slaying following gunman’s sentencing

LYNCHBURG NEWS & ADVANCE
Published: December 11, 2008

UPDATE:

Justin Michael Davis pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to second-degree murder in the May shooting of a Naola man and was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation.

His attorney, Scott DeBruin, said he must serve about 85 percent of the 15 years. In addition to the 15-year sentence, he received a 25-year suspended sentence.

Davis’ plea came after Timothy Wright Jr., 22, was sentenced to 63 years in prison for shooting the Naola man, Justin Baumgardner, in May.

Before he was sentenced, Davis told the judge, “I’d like to apologize to the Baumgardner family and to give my deepest regrets.“

The family approved of the plea bargain, Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst said.

Davis is the son of a former Amherst County deputy - now a Nelson County deputy - and was charged as an accessory to the slaying for allegedly driving Wright’s truck during the shooting. He testified against Wright.

DeBruin said of Davis’ father, “He never attempted to influence the investigation or the disposal of the case.“

DeBruin said that Davis had wanted to personally express his regrets to the Baumgardner family, but the terms of his probation prohibit him from having any contact with them.

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An Amherst circuit judge today sentenced convicted killer Timothy Wright Jr. to 63 years in state prison for fatally shooting a Naola man in a jealous rage in May.

In October, a jury convicted Wright, 22, of first-degree murder in the May 3 slaying of 19-year-old Justin Baumgardner. The jury recommended the 63-year sentence.

Wright was accused of firing a handgun into Baumgardner’s pickup after he left Monacan Park, where Wright confronted him.

Judge Michael Gamble sentenced Wright after Baumgardner’s parents, on the stand facing the judge, described the impact of his death.

“I cannot describe,” his father, Robert Eugene Baumgardner, testified softly, as Wright watched him.

“I was probably the closest person to Justin; I saw him every day,” testified his mother, Lisa Vosburgh. “I had my life wrapped around him.”

When he was little, her son was afraid of the dark, she recalled.

“I have to live with the knowledge that he died in the dark, alone,” Vosburgh testified.

Wright’s sister, Hannah Wright, 20, testified that her brother, clad in an orange jail coverall and shackled at the ankles, was a “guardian angel” to her and her six siblings while all eight grew up and were home-schooled in a Mennonite-Amish family.

“He’s the best brother I’ve ever seen anybody have,” she testified.

A probation officer, Sonya Schroeder, testified that Wright had been less-than-honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps for what was termed misconduct, but she did not elaborate.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst asked Gamble to impose the 63-year-sentence, which the jury had recommended.

“Mr. Wright should not be loosed back on society,” Garst told Gamble.

Before he was sentenced, Wright asked the judge to let him return to his family “as soon as possible.”

Wright’s attorney, Greg Smith, said Virginia essentially has abolished parole, which likely would be considered only in a “geriatric parole” scenario.

According to testimony and evidence presented during the four-day trial in Amherst County Circuit Court that culminated in Wright’s conviction Oct. 4, Wright killed Baumgardner because he was jealous of the man’s past relationship with a then 17-year-old girl named Nicole Turpin.

Garst told the jury Wright was frustrated that Turpin, at some time in their month-long relationship, had found out that he was married and refused to have sex with him.

When Turpin told him about her past relationship with Baumgardner — that she had become pregnant by him and lost the baby — he threatened to kill Baumgardner, the girl testified earlier in the week.

On May 3, Baumgardner met Turpin at Monacan Park off Virginia 130 in southwestern Amherst County. Before she left to meet him, she testified, she called Wright to tell him about the meeting.

Wright then came to the park with a friend, Justin Davis.

Davis testified that after getting into an argument with Baumgardner, the men chased his truck down Virginia 130 toward Naola.

Garst said Wright fired into the truck six times.

His truck and body were found in a driveway a few hundred feet off Virginia 130 the morning of May 4.

Davis is the son of a former Amherst County deputy - now a Nelson County deputy - and was charged as an accessory to the slaying for allegedly driving Wright’s truck during the shooting. He testified against Wright.

Wright also has been charged with maliciously wounding 27-year-old Donnie Seamster on Aug. 18, when they shared a cell block in the Amherst County Jail as Wright awaited trial.

Baumgardner’s family declined to comment after the sentencing.