Marshman guilty; jury recommends 122-year sentence

After two hours of deliberation Thursday, a Charlottesville jury found Jason Scott Marshman guilty of first-degree murder and firearms charges. Two hours after that, the jury settled on a suggested sentence of 122 years in prison.

The verdict and suggested sentence were deemed suitable by a prosecutor in the case, but the jury’s decisions left defense attorney Michael Morchower astounded.

“I was very surprised by the verdict,” Morchower said. “I didn’t think the commonwealth established a case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“It was an appropriate sentence under the circumstances,” said Claude Worrell, Charlottesville’s deputy commonwealth’s attorney. “It wasn’t an easy case, as the jury heard.”

Authorities have said this case has been difficult from the start — not long after 28-year-old William Miller Herndon was shot in a Hardy Drive apartment last summer, his body was moved and the apartment’s tenant started cleaning the crime scene. Additionally, some witnesses weren’t forthcoming with police.

The jury convicted Marshman Thursday of first-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing murder and nine counts of maliciously discharging a firearm within an occupied dwelling in connection with Herndon’s death. A medical examiner confirmed this week that Herndon died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Morchower said that Marshman, who was arrested about a month after the shooting in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., shot Herndon in self-defense. Witnesses testified this week that a gun was found under Herndon after the shooting; the gun that Marshman used has not been recovered.

Marshman, 30, didn’t react outwardly to the jury’s verdict, which was announced around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. After Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. read the jury’s decision on the murder charge, Marshman responded by blinking once. He laid his hands on the edge of the desk, flexing them slightly, as the rest of the verdicts were read.

Morchower said he thinks his client was “in a state of shock.”

“One hundred twenty-two years,” Morchower said. “I don’t know anyone who can serve that sentence and come out alive.”

Parole has been abolished in Virginia, therefore Marshman is ineligible. Morchower said his client plans to seek an appeal in part because of legal issues surrounding an interview he had with a police officer in New York during which he said he was shooting in self-defense.

A few witnesses testified this week in Charlottesville Circuit Court that they were planning to enter plea agreements pending their truthful testimony.

After court Thursday, Morchower said part of his surprise at the verdict came from the fact that some of the witnesses were convicted felons.

The jury had the option of suggesting a sentence from 20 years to life in prison on the murder charge, and between two and 10 years on each of the maliciously discharging a firearm charges. The use of a firearm charge came with a mandatory three-year sentence.

Joseph Platania, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said during closing statements that the case against Marshman was “a first-degree murder case.” After Marshman’s conviction, Platania did not make a sentence request of the jury.

“You speak for the community,” Platania said in court.

Morchower, who told the jury in court that they should find his client not guilty or guilty of voluntary manslaughter, said in court that he thought the minimum sentence of 41 years would “impose sufficient justice.”

Prior to the jury deliberating a possible sentence, Platania listed Marshman’s prior convictions. His convictions in New York included first-degree attempted assault and third-degree intimidation of a witness; his Virginia charges included misdemeanor concealment of merchandise, failure to appear and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.

Marshman is scheduled to return for sentencing Nov. 7.