City man pleads guilty to murder

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 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 Albemarle County police officers.

They were not. Charlottesville police have said they were Michael Stuart Pritchett and his cousin, William Douglas Gentry Jr.
McGowan soon was dead, shot in the head repeatedly.
Gentry pleaded guilty Monday to capital murder, entering a home with the intent to commit a serious felony, robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a robbery, use of a firearm in the commission of a burglary and use of a firearm in the commission of a murder.
Under a plea agreement, which Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire accepted in Charlottesville Circuit Court, city prosecutors will not seek the death penalty as punishment for the capital murder charge.

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.
A bespectacled McGowan answered the door. Realizing what was happening, McGowan said “no” and backed up toward a couch, according to a police interview with Pritchett recounted in a search warrant affadavit. 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 the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional 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.
“‘It wasn’t like that,’” said Mooney, reading Gentry’s words from a transcript. “‘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 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 gold 2001 Nissan Sentra. Around 2 p.m. the next day, worried co-workers visited McGowan’s home to see why she hadn’t reported to work.

Police said they found a broken pair of glasses near McGowan’s body and a black purse on her lap.
McGowan’s car was found two days after her death on a wooded lane near the Rivanna Trail, Mooney said, and her laptop was discovered in the Rivanna River. Gentry sold his gun to another man, who also held on to the .380 pistol in hopes of finding a buyer, Mooney testified.
On Nov. 12, police arrested Pritchett and Gentry. Before being told why he was arrested, Gentry said, “We were here on Thursday night,” Mooney testified.
In court Monday, defense attorney Lloyd Snook said Pritchett and Gentry have different recollections of what happened. Snook said Pritchett was the leader in the incident, although Pritchett said the same of Gentry in an affadavit filed in Albemarle, where a search warrant had been executed.
Both Snook and Worrell described Gentry’s criminal history as minimal; Snook said he had a misdemeanor driving charge and some truancy issues as a juvenile on his record.

Snook said in court that he expected that he would have had to prepare for sentencing if the case went to trial. Gentry, who choked up in court Monday when pleading guilty to the firearm charge that mentions McGowan’s murder, didn’t want to have a trial for the benefit of his family and the victim’s family, Snook said.
“He has expressed to us and to his family his remorse really since the beginning,” he said.
Worrell said in court Monday that McGowan’s family preferred that Gentry, 23, 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.
“That is a sufficient amount of time,” Worrell said in court.
Pritchett, 19, is scheduled for a five-day trial starting June 8.