By Michelle Washington, The Virginian-Pilot
NORFOLK, Va. - Sammie Henderson III was found guilty Friday of all charges stemming from a shoot out in which two police officers were wounded.
Judge Paul Sheridan found Henderson guilty of two counts of attempted capital murder for shooting Officers Windsor Brabson and Jemal Davis, and of one count of attempted murder for shooting at undercover Officer Luis Rivera. Henderson also was found guilty of the malicious woundings of Brabson and Davis and of five weapons charges.
The shootings happened June 11 at the Gallery at Military Circle. Undercover narcotics officers came to the mall for a buy-bust operation at a nearby hotel. While one man was arrested inside the hotel, officers approached the three people waiting for him in a gray Lincoln in the parking lot.
That’s when the shooting started. Both Brabson and Davis were hit twice - Brabson in the legs and Davis in the stomach.
Police shot Henderson, who was a passenger in the car, and Artis Carmon Jr., who police said was driving . Everyone recovered. Carmon faces charges similar to Henderson’s, but he has not yet been tried.
The verdicts came at the end of a five-day trial that began with a jury. Henderson asked about halfway through the trial that jurors be dismissed and that Sheridan decide the case. Sheridan is a retired judge from Northern Virginia brought in to hear the trial.
During closing arguments in Circuit Court, prosecutor Philip G. Evans II said even if the men in the car had not known Brabson and Davis were police officers, they had no reason to start shooting.
“They told the occupants they were police officers, told them to get their hands up,” Evans said. “What happens? A barrage of fire. There was no action that would have legitimized the use of deadly force.”
Henderson’s lawyer, James Ellenson, had tried to show that Henderson fired at the undercover officers in self-defense because he thought he was being robbed.
“The initial reaction was, ‘We’re scared.’” Ellenson said. “The initial reaction was, ‘We don’t think these guys are police officers.’”
Sheridan ruled immediately after closing arguments in the case.
“The last two witnesses” Brabson and Davis “were powerfully persuasive as to what was known or should have been known at the scene,” Sheridan said. “The nature of his reaction is not that of self-defense.”
Henderson’s wife sobbed loudly and had to be removed from the courtroom. She wailed in the hallway outside as Sheridan explained his verdict. Henderson’s mother, Janet , said her son had not received a fair trial.
“They railroaded him,” she said.
Brabson and Davis declined to comment.
Joe Raia, one of the dismissed jurors , returned to listen to the closing arguments.
“The judge’s decision was right and fair,” he said.
Henderson, 23, is scheduled to be sentenced April 22. He faces a maximum of life in prison.
He is also awaiting trial on a charge of second-degree murder from a March 2004 shooting at an International House of Pancakes in which a bystander was killed. Henderson was free on bail from that charge at the time of the Military Circle shootings. His bail has since been revoked.
The Military Circle shootings prompted City Councilman Paul R. Riddick to ask why the officers conducted a drug bust at a busy shopping center. Police responded that drug deals frequently happen in public places , such as hotels, convenience stores, restaurants, churches and gas stations. They had conducted six prior drug busts at Military Circle without incident.