Jury recommends 63 years for Timothy Wright Jr. in Amherst murder case

Lynchburg News & Advnace
Published: October 4, 2008

Updated 8:46 p.m.

Jurors deliberated nearly four hours Saturday before convicting Timothy Wright Jr. of first-degree murder in the May 3 slaying of a 19-year-old Naola man.
Before a half-filled courtroom, the nine-woman, three-man jury also convicted Wright of use of a firearm in the slaying, shooting from a vehicle and shooting at an occupied vehicle.
After the verdict, jurors heard emotional testimony from family members of the victim and defendant. They then recommended a sentence of 63 years.
Upon hearing the verdict and sentence recommendation, members of the victim’s and defendant’s families began to cry.
According to testimony and evidence presented during the four-day trial in Amherst County Circuit Court, Wright killed Justin Baumgardner because he was jealous of the man’s past relationship with a then 17-year-old girl named Nicole Turpin.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha 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.
“He amounted to more at 19… than the three people involved could or will ever amount to,” Baumgardner’s mother Lisa Vosburgh said Saturday.
Vosburgh told the jury she has to drive by her son’s murder scene every day.
In describing her son, she recounted a recent Christmas when she was expecting a diamond ring from her boyfriend. Baumgardner, then 18, went to a jewelry store and bought his mother a small diamond ring - a ring she now wears around her neck.
Her testimony brought several jurors to tears.
“I’m moving away. I’m moving out of the county,” she said.
Pointing to Wright, Baumgardner’s father Robert Baumgardner said, “That gentleman over there stole my life from me.”
Zack Baumgardner also chastised Wright, asking how he was able to testify Friday about a nonexistent friendship with his brother and how he could look at his family and lie.
“If he will do that, he’s capable of anything,” Zach Baumgardner told the jury.
Wright’s sister, Hannah Wright, told the jury her brother was a good friend to all of his younger siblings.
“I don’t understand how it happened,” she said. “I believe the truth will come out.”
Wright’s final sentencing hearing before Judge Michael Gamble is scheduled for Dec. 3.
The jury came up with the 63-year sentence recommendation based on 50 years for murder and 13 years on the other charges.
Davis, who is charged as an accessory to the slaying for allegedly driving Wright’s truck during the shooting, has not been scheduled for another hearing as of Saturday.

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Timothy Wright Jr. has been found guilty on all charges against him in the May 3 slaying of 19-year-old Justin Baumgardner.
The murder trial of Timothy Wright Jr., in its fourth day, began Saturday with jury instructions and closing arguments from Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst and defense attorney Greg Smith.
“He died afraid, alone and in pain,” Garst told the jury.
The jury found Wright guilty of first-degree murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle, shooting from a vehicle and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the slaying of Baumgardner on Virginia 130 in southwest Amherst County.
Much of Garst’s closing statements focused on the alleged motive behind the slaying, Wright’s infatuation with a 17-year-old girl who had earlier dated Baumgardner, and according to her testimony, had gotten pregnant by him and lost the baby.
Smith’s closing statements focused on discrediting the investigation. Early on in the investigation, Smith said, sheriff’s office investigators focused on Wright based on statements made by Justin Davis, his codefendant and the son of a recently resigned Amherst County deputy. Throughout the trial, Smith and Wright have accused Davis of being the shooter, and the sheriff’s office as bungling the investigation before turning it over to the Virginia State Police.
“Mr. Wright didn’t have the benefit of a thorough investigation,” Smith said.
The jury began deliberation at 11:45 a.m.Saturday morning.