A Stuarts Draft man accused of shooting two people at the Rock Point Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that could, if he is convicted, spell his execution.
Ralph Leon Jackson pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, use of a firearm in relation to a murder, assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm, use of a firearm during an assault with a dangerous weapon and with the intent to commit murder and assault with the intent to commit murder.
Jackson could face death if he is convicted of the murder charge and/or the related firearms charge.
He faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison on the count of use of a firearm during an assault with a dangerous weapon and with the intent to commit murder.
He is scheduled to have a jury trial on Jan. 14 in Charlottesville’s federal court.
Jackson, 57, has been accused of shooting Timothy Phillip Davis and Christina Shay Floyd at sunset April 5 with a Harrington & Richardson 20 gauge shotgun.
Davis, a 27-year-old operations director and DJ for radio station WNRN, fell 150 feet over a cliff after being shot. He died from his injuries four days later.
Floyd, a Fluvanna resident who was 18 at the time, survived with gunshot wounds. Much of what authorities know of the shooting incident stems from her account.
A Crimestoppers tip led police to Jackson’s Howardsville Turnpike home.
Jackson, who worked as a mechanic, told investigators that his mind was foggy from male enhancement pills.
According to a federal search warrant executed as his home, authorities seized two tubes of male enhancement cream and empty plastic bottles marked “Men’s Club Enlargement Formula.”
Frederick T. Heblich Jr., Jackson’s federal public defender, didn’t request bond for Jackson on Monday.
Jackson remains held at the Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement