After a day of swimming, LSD and alcohol Joey Parrish, 17, Ethan Parrish, 24, and Stephanie Reynolds, 19 (all White) pulled into a Sheetz parking lot in Powhattan Virginia to drop off two friends. At this point there was a verbal confrontation with 18-year old Tahliek Taliaferro, (African American) and friends: Courtney Jones, Lawrence Harris, Tommie Williams, Kendall Trainum, and Kwamaine Marshall. The confrontation ended a short distance down the road with Taliaferro dead and 15-year old Jones seriously wounded.
Grand jury testimony and evidence led to certification of charges against the two Parrish cousins including first degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of attempted murder, and charges of using a firearm in the commission of felonies. Joey Parrish, a convicted felon, received an additional charge for possessing a firearm.
Emotions ran high in Powhattan this week after the jury dropped most of the charges against Joey and Ethan Parrish finding them guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Taliaferro, and misdemeanor assault for wounding Jones.
Although the shooting is not believed to be racially motivated some in the community believe the verdict was. One bystander outside of the court described it as the most racist thing he had ever heard and went on to say, "That’s Powhattan".
The Virginia NAACP released a statement after the verdict was read expressing disappointment in the outcome of the trial.
"This verdict reaffirms what many citizens of Powhatan County have always felt, that there is no justice for African Americans here. We now await the lenient sentence that this jury will impose. The judicial system did not work for Tahliek Taliaferro, his family, friends, loved ones and citizens."
Kaa Caputo, Taliaferro’s mother in an emotional statement to 12 news said: "How did they come to that conclusion? Involuntary manslaughter – do they know what it means?"
Jean Taliaferro, Tahliek’s grandmother added: "They can go to see their son but I can’t go and see Tahliek, I guess they thought he was a deer or a duck or something."
Carolyn Jackson, Jones’s mother said "It’s unbelievable they did not give him first degree murder, I cannot believe that my child was shot in the back and you said you are going to give him a pat on the back. What would have happened if he had died? It’s unfair, unfair."
The jury recommended a sentence of 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and an additional 12 months for assault and battery in the case f Ethan Parrish. Joey Parrish has not been sentenced yet but could face up to 16 years, 11 for involuntary manslaughter and assault and an additional 5 years for possessing a firearm.
Below is a brief recap of the grand jury testimony and the trial that led to the controversial verdict.
Defendant Stephanie Reynolds (granted testimonial immunity) told the grand jury:
“Someone ‘bucked’ at Joey and Ethan got mad, Ethan and Joey started cussing and then Ethan pulled out a gun from between his feet and made like he was going to get out, but I grabbed him and told him not to.”
According to further testimony, before leaving the Sheetze parking lot Joey told Taliaferro: “Come on if you want to finish this.” Reynolds went on to say that she assumed that Taliaferro and his friends would follow them but the Parrish cousins said they would handle it.
After leaving the parking lot heading west on route 60 Ethan began digging around in the back seat of the car, he then told Reynolds to turn around and if she didn’t she could get out and he would drive. Ethan made the comment that he was going to "scare" and "smoke" Tahliek. Shortly after making a U turn they turned on Dorset Road and stopped. Ethan told Joey to cover the licensee plate with a bag. Reynolds said Joey got back in the car as the other teens pulled along side of them on Dorset Road; she went on to say,
“Ethan was hanging out of the back driver’s side window with the assault rifle. Tahliek was just laughing at us, he wasn’t nervous — when he started laughing Ethan pulled the trigger.”
Courtney Jones said:
“I saw the back window go down and I saw a gun, then it just started shooting, I got down and then I looked and saw Tahliek laid over.” Jones was struck in the back and Taliaferro died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head.
At the trial:
Margaret Ashton Bradbury, one of the teens being dropped off by the suspects, testified that before getting into her own car she heard Joey Parrish yelling at Taliaferro and his friends who were eating at the Bruster’s ice cream shop next to the Sheetze. She said she couldn’t make out everything Joey said but she thinks she heard him say ‘If you want to fight, follow us,’“ She went on to say that she attempted to flag down the car that Taliaferro was riding in as they passed by a couple of minutes later, she wanted to warned them that Joey had a 9 mm and Ethan had an assault rifle in the car.
Courtney Jones along with other friends of Taliaferro testified that that the teen may have wanted to fight Joey and may have said, "Let’s go fight them. Let’s get them." (Accounts very, some say they did not hear him say this) he was not chasing Joey when the shooting began. Lawrence Harris, driver of the victim’s vehicle said that they turned down Dorset road to drop off one of his passenger, not to follow Parrish.
Reynolds told the jury that after Ethan ordered her to pull over and told Joey to cover the License plates they sat and watched Harris drive slowly past. She said that Harris had something in his hand but whatever it was wasn’t pointed at them, this is when Taliaferro saw the gun and started laughing, Ethan then began shooting.
Police testified that they recovered 6 shell casings fired from a semiautomatic Mac 90 military style assault rifle (83 round drum clip) at the scene, and found a bb gun and some baseball bats in Harris’s car, they went on to say that 2 bullets hit the street and 4 hit the vehicle, one struck Jones in the lower back and another hit Taliaferro in the head killing him. All of the bullets entered from the rear of the vehicle.
Ethan Parrish told the court that he began firing out of fear, he believed that the other teens were coming after him, he also said he believed they had a gun. Joey Parrish didn’t testify.