Teen resentenced to 23 years for role in robbery

BEDFORD — A Bedford County teen was sentenced to 23 years in prison Friday for his role in a March 2007 robbery after originally being sentenced two years ago to the juvenile justice system until his 20th birthday.

A January opinion issued by the Supreme Court of Virginia stated that Demetrious Brown, 16 at the time of the robbery, should have been sentenced to the mandatory minimum provisions of the commonwealth’s gun laws. The law calls for a three-year minimum sentence at a prison for adults for the first conviction of use of a firearm in commission of a felony and five years for subsequent convictions.

The court ruled Bedford Circuit Court Judge James Updike did not have the discretion afforded in other convictions to sentence a juvenile prosecuted as an adult under juvenile provisions. The decision was reached after prosecutors first appealed Updike’s sentence to the court of appeals, which was in turn appealed by defense lawyers to the high court.

“I don’t see that I have any discretion,” Updike said Friday as he sentenced Brown, adding that he would be in violation of court orders from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals if he failed to impose the mandatory minimums.

In March 2008, when Brown was sentenced, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mark Robinette argued Updike was obligated to sentence under the adult mandatory provisions. Ten days later, when Demetrious’ cousin Dwayne Brown was sentenced for the same crimes in the same robbery and after Updike ruled against him, the Supreme Court found Robinette conceded the point. When the Supreme Court ruled that Demetrious had to be resentenced, it also found Robinette’s concession meant Dwayne’s sentence of confinement in the juvenile justice system until his 18th birthday, followed by 24 months in jail must stand.

After the January Supreme Court ruling, Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz said prosecutors would have to consider the difference in the cousins’ sentences. After Friday’s hearing, Robinette said Demetrious Brown didn’t deserve a break to put his sentence more in line with his cousin’s.

The prosecutor said a third defendant, Tyrell Spinner, of Goode, was 21 at the time of the robbery and was sentenced to 23 years. Robinette said Demetrious Brown arguably played a more important role in the crime than Spinner. When the Browns were initially sentenced as juveniles, it was just as unfair as the difference in the two Browns’ sentences Friday, he said.

“There was going to be some disparity any way you cut it,” Robinette said.

Although the Browns and Spinner were wearing masks, prosecutors believe it was Demetrious who herded five people at a Centerville Road card game into a bedroom and forced them to lie down at gunpoint, then threatened to kill someone if they didn’t get at least $1,000 in cash, Robinette said.

“I didn’t feel he deserved any more consideration,” the prosecutor said.