Witness reveals scene leading to July killing

More details emerged Thursday about what happened prior to a 19-year-old city man’s shooting death in July.

Charlottesville General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. certified first-degree murder and gun charges against Theodore Calvin Timberlake, Bobby Wayne Gardner Jr. and Trenton Michael Brock after several hours of testimony during a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

In the early morning of July 19, police responded to the corner of Sixth Street Southeast and Monticello Avenue, where they found the body of Joshua Anthony Magruder.

According to witness testimony on Thursday, Magruder and his twin brother Jacquinn were leaving the area after Gardner, who is their cousin, called them over to a car and told them to run.

Jacquinn Magruder testified that he and his brother walked away at first, but their pace quickened once they heard gunshots.

“I felt bullets passing by my head,” he testified.

Jacquinn Mag-ruder kept running up Monticello Road, but eventually realized that his brother wasn’t behind him, he testified. When he circled back, Jacquinn Magruder said he saw his brother’s body on the sidewalk and police and ambulance crews in the area.

Gathering for a fight

Quante Nelson testified that she picked up Gardner that morning of the shooting, after having been told there would be a fight.

Nelson testified that she parked her green Honda at the apartment complex on Sixth Street Southeast and stayed in the car. Nelson said in court that she saw Gardner, who got out of the car after warning his cousins, walk toward Timberlake and Brock.

The three of them then walked over to an open space known as “the cut,” where there were several people, including a man with whom Gardner had a beef, witnesses testified.

“What did you see Mr. Gardner do,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania asked Nelson.

She paused before Platania asked the question again. Downer told her to answer, but then allowed Nelson to go into the judge’s chambers for a few moments to speak with her mother in the presence of Platania and a bailiff. Downer then ordered the 40 people in the courtroom’s gallery to be silent in the interim.

When they returned, Platania again asked, “What did you see Mr. Gardner do as you approached the circle?”

Nelson paused again before quietly saying, “shoot.” She gave the same answer when asked about what Timberlake and Brock were doing at the time.

Nelson testified that she left the area once she heard the first shot, which witnesses said came from the group in the cut.

Local resident Shamika Lewis testified that she saw three men who were shooting in the street later go into a nearby building.

“When they went into 711, it looked like they had guns,” said Lewis, referencing the building number. “When they left 711, it looked like they didn’t have guns.”

After checking on her children downstairs, Lewis testified that she opened her front door, heard a gunshot and saw a white car leaving the area. That’s when Lewis, who was on the phone with police, said she saw a body on the sidewalk.

Defense agruments

After most of the witnesses testified Thursday, defense attorneys for the defendants started giving reasons why their clients couldn’t have killed Joshua Magruder.

Michael Hallahan, who represents Gardner, said the caliber of bullet in the victim was different from the ones fired from the cut.

Charles Weber, representing Brock, told the judge that there was no evidence that Brock knew about the fight or that he intended to commit a felony.

Platania said in court that the case was a “concert of action,” which made it appropriate for all three defendants to be charged with first-degree murder even if they didn’t personally shoot Joshua Magruder.

“It’s a probable consequence of shooting in a small area,” Platania said in court.

All three men are scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Dec. 15.

After the preliminary hearing Thursday, Platania said in court he would not prosecute a misdemeanor count of accessory-after-the fact against co-defendant Rachel Denise Turner. Turner was accused of helping her co-defendants after the shooting.