Jury recommends 31 years in Lynchburg murder

UPDATE:

A jury this afternoon recommended a sentence of 31 years for a man found guilty earlier today of killing another man at a Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Lynchburg.

Gregory Kittrell Jr. was found guilty of second-degree murder in the February 2011 shooting death of Brian Patterson.

The jury's recommendation was as follows:

• 18 years for second-degree murder,
• 5 years for shooting at an occupied building,
• 3 years for use of a firearm in commission of a murder,
• 3 years for unlawful wounding, and
• 2 years for possession of a concealed weapon - second offense.

Kittrell will go before a judge April 13 for his sentencing.

UPDATE

The jury returned verdicts in the case of  Gregory Kittrell around 10:30 a.m., after an additional hour of deliberation Thursday morning.

The jury found him guilty of second degree murder of Brian Patterson, unlawful wounding of Walter Carpenter, use of a firearm in commission of murder, possession of a concealed weapon - second offense, and shooting in an occupied building.
He was found not guilty of use of a firearm in the malicious wounding of Walter Carpenter.

Unlawful wounding is a lesser included offense in the original malicious wounding charge, as second-degree murder is lesser included offense to first-degree.

He now faces sentence of 5 to 63 years. Jury began deliberation on a sentence recommendation at 11:45 a.m.

EARLIER

A jury is expected to rule Thursday in the case against a man accused of shooting another after a fistfight broke out during a party.

Testimony and closing arguments wrapped up Wednesday in the case against Gregory Kittrell Jr., charged in the first-degree murder of Brian Patterson at the Fraternal Order of Police lodge on Wiggington Road the night of Feb. 19, 2011.

He is also charged with aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of use of a firearm in commission in both offenses, maliciously discharging a firearm in an occupied building and carrying a concealed weapon.

Kittrell took the stand in his own defense Wednesday, telling the jury about the gun his sister bought him for his birthday and how he often carried it.

The night of the party, Kittrell said his rap group, the Tooly Boys, was asked to perform. He arrived around 11:30 p.m., but couldn’t find the D.J., so he headed back to the building’s side entrance.

That was when, he said, he bumped into Brian Patterson, who took exception to the contact, and asked Kittrell “Yeah, n----, what’s poppin’?”

Words were exchanged, Kittrell testified. Patterson punched Kittrell in the face and put him in a headlock. Kittrell testified he felt others punching him, but said some of the contact could have been those trying to break up the fight. The gun fell free of its holster, he said.

Kittrell testified he broke free of the headlock, grabbed the weapon and fired it. The fight reminded him of a beating four years ago that resulted in the loss of sight in his right eye, he said.

“I was just trying to defend myself,” Kittrell said, referencing his left eye, “if I’d lost that one, I’d have been screwed.”

He said he did not remember anything between the first gunshot and running from the lodge.

Multiple witnesses Tuesday and Wednesday testified they saw Kittrell shoot at Patterson, then follow him around the lodge, shooting him multiple times. Investigators testified they found nine shell casings at the scene, all fired from the same 9 mm gun.

“I try to replay it and see if I can recall what happened … I can’t get it,” Kittrell said Wednesday.

Kittrell said after leaving the lodge, he went to a parking lot off Mayflower Drive to be picked up and later turned himself in to police.

That night, he logged into Facebook and saw “R.I.P.” messages for Patterson.

“I broke down into tears that night,” he said, adding if he could go back in time, “I’d have never even (gone to) that party.”

April Bateman testified she watched the fight from atop a chair and said Kittrell fired the first shot, but said it didn’t appear as though he was aiming at anyone.

Alante Callands testified Kittrell was jumped by five or six people and the first shot he heard did not come from Kittrell’s gun. However, Officer N.P. Claytor said Callands stated at the time, he “did not see anything.”

In closing arguments, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Pflieger painted a portrait of Kittrell not as a man who fired a shot in self-defense, but as someone bested in a fight and out for revenge.

“He was pissed off. I get that,” Pflieger said. He added the actions following the initial shot prove a malicious intent beyond a knee-jerk reaction to being beat up.

“He relentlessly pursued his prey until it was dead,” he said.

Kittrell’s attorney William Quillian attempted to discredit the first-degree murder charge by arguing there was no premeditation. Working on the assumption the first shot, which he said entered Patterson’s body at an upward angle, was the one that damaged Patterson’s subclavian vein, Quillian contended that shot was fatal. Anything after that should not be considered since he was already essentially lost. He attempted to show the first shot was not malicious, but fired out of fear.

Pflieger came back to the standard of what a “reasonable person” would have done, noting Kittrell’s previous experiences shouldn’t change the standards for his actions.

Kittrell literally, he said, “brought a gun to a fistfight.”

And he said there should be no doubt what Kittrell’s intent was, judging by what happened even after the first shot.

“The fact that he fired eight shots after the first one shows what his intent was.”