Jury: Shooting self-defense
Two related counts bring convictions
BY ALAN COOPER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 29, 2001
A teasing and profane comment outside a downtown nightclub led to gunfire and bloodshed about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 6.
A Richmond Circuit Court jury deliberated for almost six hours over two days before concluding yesterday that
Landon Joseph Faulkner acted in self-defense when he shot two men near Fourth and Franklin streets.
However, the panel convicted Faulkner, 23, of attempting to elude a police officer in his car immediately after the shooting and of misdemeanor hit-and-run when he kept going after a collision with the officer's vehicle.
The jury recommended that he serve a
year in prison on the attempt-to-elude charge and nine months in jail on the hit-and-run count. Sentencing was set for Jan. 24.
According to two days of testimony, the altercation began when Tony Layne Jr. was kicked out of Cafine's at Fourth and Grace streets for arguing with another patron at about the same time a group of six or eight friends left.
Layne kicked at a chain-link fence around a construction site as he cursed and threatened to beat up the man with whom he had quarreled. He lost his balance and twisted his ankle.
Robert Whitney Elliott, 27, who was in the group behind Layne, asked him how he was going to fight with a messed-up ankle.
Matthew L. Faulkner, Layne's cousin and the brother of Landon Faulkner, told Elliott to shut up.
Testimony differed as to how aggressive Matthew Faulkner and Elliott were, but it was consistent that Elliott grabbed or hit Faulkner.
Landon Faulkner had been waiting for his brother in the parking lot and saw part of the altercation. He took his .38-caliber revolver to the corner of Fourth and Franklin streets.
Layne had headed for the car, and his brother appeared to be outnumbered, so he fired a warning shot into the ground, Landon Faulkner testified.
Elliott kept coming toward him and he saw Vincent Talbott, 25, move in his direction out of the corner of his eye.
Faulkner said he shot Talbott and ran toward his car. He looked over his shoulder and saw Elliott chasing him, so he shot him as well, Faulkner said.
Faulkner said he fled west on Main Street into the Fan District and acknowledged running stop signs at speeds of 50 mph or greater. A Virginia Commonwealth University policeman pursued him and collided with his vehicle, he said.
He finally stopped the car and bolted from it, but police pursued and apprehended him. They found his revolver in the car with three spent cartridge casings.
Elliott, Talbott and other members of their group testified that they did not see a warning shot. Talbott testified that he was trying to be a peacemaker when he was shot. Both men were seriously injured but have recovered from their wounds.
David P. Baugh, Faulkner's attorney, argued that state law required the jury to view any threat to Faulkner from his standpoint.
Faulkner was especially concerned about his safety because he suffered a serious leg injury in September 1997 when Roy Echols opened fire at his estranged wife and stepson outside a Hanover County home. Kathy Evangeline Echols, 37, and George Lee Morris, 19, were killed and Echols was sentenced to two life terms plus 23 years in prison as a result of shooting.
Faulkner, a friend of Morris, was one of several young men on a porch when the shooting occurred.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Alan Cooper at (804) 649-6649 or
acooper@timesdispatch.com
