Timberlake guilty of murder

A jury says a Charlottesville man should spend 14 years in prison for killing a 19-year-old city resident.
After nearly 10 hours of deliberation, a Charlottesville jury found Theodore Calvin Timberlake guilty of second-degree murder, use of a firearm while committing murder, attempted malicious wounding, use of a firearm while committing attempted malicious wounding and unlawfully shooting an occupied dwelling.
Timberlake, 21, was convicted of shooting and killing 19-year-old Joshua Magruder on July 19 during a shootout at Sixth Street Southeast and Monticello Avenue.
The jury, which handed up its verdict at 11 p.m. Thursday, deliberated into early Friday morning on Timberlake’s punishment. Jurors returned around 12:30 a.m. with a recommended six-year prison sentence on the murder charge. Virginia’s statute calls for a term of five to 40 years on the charge.

Both Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joseph Platania and defense attorney J. Lloyd Snook III said that the jury worked hard on the verdict and proposed punishment.
The firearm charges each carried a mandatory three-year sentence. The jury recommended a one-year sentence on the unlawful shooting charge and one year on the attempted malicious wounding charge.
Authorities have said Magruder and his twin brother were running away from the scene after their cousin, Bobby Wayne Gardner Jr., warned them to leave. Witnesses testified that Gardner had an ongoing conflict with Jamaal Gray and the men were going to fight that night.

Gardner and Trenton Michael Brock also were charged in connection with Magruder’s slaying, although Platania said in court that plea agreements had been drawn up under which the commonwealth’s attorney agreed not to prosecute first-degree murder charges if the men testified truthfully.
The plea agreements have not been signed. After court early Friday, Platania said he and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Katherine J. Peters hadn’t decided if they would present the plea agreements in court.
Gardner refused to testify this week about who gave him the gun that he reportedly used in last summer’s shootout, despite reminders about the terms of the plea agreement. That agreement recommended a sentence of 12 to 14 years.

Brock, whose testimony was called inconsistent by Snook in court, has an agreement that recommends eight to 10 years in prison.
Platania said after court that the Charlottesville Police Department did extensive work on this case, without which the case never would have gone to trial.
Timberlake has been incarcerated since his arrest nearly a year ago. He remains held in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
A sentencing date will be set next week.