A teenager charged in the wounding of a high school cheerleader in a drive-by shooting last summer pleaded guilty to four charges Friday but still maintains his innocence.
Michael Anthony Ward Jr., 18, pleaded guilty to malicious wounding, shooting into an occupied dwelling, possession of a gun by a convicted felon and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in Lynchburg Circuit Court.
The case had been set for jury trial next week, but Ward decided to enter a plea, though he says he is not the shooter.
“This is a disturbing case,” said defense attorney William Quillian. “There is a great deal of evidence that tends to poke holes in the Commonwealth’s case.”
Bethany Harrison, assistant commonwealth’s attorney, told the court that on July 28, 2008, about 15 people were sitting on and around the porch of a house on Pierce Street when a blue Hyundai drove past and a man leaned out the back driver’s side window and fired five shots at the house before the car peeled off.
The people on the porch rushed into the house, Harrison said. E.C. Glass High School cheerleader Kymberlee Moore, then 16, told her aunt that her back felt like it was burning. She had been shot in the shoulder blade. Another person on the porch suffered a scrape on his arm.
Harrison said that about 30 minutes earlier, Ward’s sister had gotten into an argument with one of the people on the porch. When she left, she promised to return with her brother.
“Witnesses identified this suspect as the shooter,” Harrison said.
When Ward was initially questioned, he said he wasn’t near where the shooting took place, Harrison said. However, after his arrest, Ward told authorities he was in the car, but was not the triggerman.
Quillian said the shooting happened in the evening, which might make it difficult for a positive identification. No test was done to determine if gunpowder residue was on Ward’s hands.
Quillian also said he has a letter written to Ward from Dominique Moss, a man convicted in another Lynchburg shooting.
“I wish I didn’t shoot then you wouldn’t be in this …” Quillian read from that letter.
Quillian did request that Ward receive a mental evaluation as part of the plea arrangement, adding that his mental status has been evaluated three times previously.
Ward is jailed without bond at the Lynchburg Adult Detention Center awaiting sentencing, which will be scheduled in October.
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