Evidence stacks up in trial for ‘07 killing

By Tasha Kates

Published: August 5, 2008

The noise of crackling paper filled the courtroom as the jury watched a police officer open a small brown package marked with red evidence tape.

Charlottesville police officer Jeremy Carper put the first pile of discolored cloth on the edge of the witness stand, describing it as a white tank top. Carper then opened the rest of the small brown packages, revealing the red T-shirt, long-sleeved shirt, dark-wash jeans and ankle socks that William Miller Herndon wore on the last morning of his life.

Jurors in the trial of Jason Scott Marshman continued to hear details Tuesday in Charlottesville Circuit Court about how Herndon’s body ended up under a tree near a Hardy Drive apartment last summer. Marshman was charged with first-degree murder and firearms violations in connection with Herndon’s death.

After a local club let out in the early hours of June 21, 2007, Evonnea Minor returned to her Hardy Drive apartment. While Minor sat in a chair outside of her gated courtyard, she testified Tuesday, she saw a lot of cars pulling into the parking lot.
“I don’t recall how everyone got in my house,” Minor said.

Minor, whose home some people in court have referred to as a hangout, said she was talking to Angela Jones when she saw a “normal, happy” Herndon walk inside her apartment.

Several minutes later, Minor said she saw and heard gunfire. She also testified that she saw Marshman standing in the doorway of her kitchen with his arm up, but she couldn’t see if he was holding anything.
After Marshman left, Minor said she went inside her apartment and found Herndon on the floor of her kitchen. With some help, Minor testified, she carried Herndon through the back door of her home.

“‘We’re going to get you to the hospital, but I got to get you out of here or I will lose my place,’” Minor recalled saying to Herndon.
Minor explained that her apartment complex forbids guns and can evict her if she has one. At the start of her testimony Tuesday, Minor said she still was living at the same apartment where Herndon was shot.

Some people had already called 911 after the shooting, but Minor testified that she was planning to take Herndon to the hospital in a friend’s truck. However, a neighbor’s concern over whether the bullets would shift in his body caused Minor to rethink her plan and put Herndon down.

Back inside the apartment, Shermeka Barnes found a gun on the floor where Herndon lay after he was shot. Barnes testified Tuesday that she put the small black gun under Minor’s sink.

“I moved it because it was there,” Barnes said in court.
After Minor moved Herndon outside, she testified that she came inside and washed her bloodstained legs and sneakers with bleach. She then started wiping blood off the floor. Barnes, who later alerted Minor to the gun, testified Tuesday that she eventually put it under the mattress of Minor’s child’s bed.

The child was not home at the time of the incident.

Both Minor and Barnes were charged with concealing or destroying evidence. The women separately testified Tuesday that they were told the prosecutor would recommend a plea agreement of a five year suspended prison sentence and community service if they testified truthfully during Marshman’s trial.

Not long after the shots rang out last summer, several people said they saw Marshman walking in the Hardy Drive area. Sharon Williams-Cowan testified Tuesday that she drove Marshman and Jones to a 7-Eleven and then to the Quality Inn on U.S. 29 after the shooting. Marshman got out of her car, Williams-Cowan said, and she and her friend continued on to the University of Virginia Medical Center to check on Herndon.

When Herndon arrived at the emergency room, Carper stood guard nearby. After a few minutes, Herndon was pronounced dead. His mother, Carper testified, was allowed to hold her son’s hand for a few moments before he was placed in a body bag.

The trial, which is scheduled to run through Friday, will resume this morning in front of Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr.