Right before he sentenced 21-year-old Desmond Holland to 40 years in prison Wednesday for second-degree murder, Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court Judge Michael McGinty chided Desmond Holland’s decisions in the days and hours that led to the 2011 shooting death of 25-year-old Elston “Deon” Brown.
Holland, a Williamsburg man who had been released from prison eight months before Brown’s death, will serve 27 years, with the remainder of the sentence suspended. Several members of Brown’s family were on hand to watch the issuance of the sentence, which came after a lengthy testimony from Desmond Holland where he offered his version of the events that led to Brown’s death.
McGinty said the case was “sad and tragic” and that Holland’s pre-sentence report characterized the defendant as “a person who is a fighter, who doesn’t shy away from fights.”
During Holland’s testimony — his first in Circuit Court, as he pleaded guilty to the murder charge in January through a plea bargain with prosecutors — he outlined a series of fights he said he had with Brown in the months preceding the shooting, including a large fight at a woman’s 19th birthday party at Kingsmill he said featured a large group of people fighting and throwing chairs at each other.
Holland also referenced a pair of incidents in Charles City County. Holland’s uncle, Lamar Holland, testified during Wednesday’s hearing that Brown approached his nephew at a party in Charles City County in the summer of 2010 and was carrying a firearm. He said Brown put the firearm on the ground before fighting Desmond Holland in a ditch. Desmond Holland then testified that an associate of Brown’s drew a gun near him during an altercation in Charles City County about one month before the murder.
The police were not alerted to any of those incidents, Holland said.
On the day of the murder, Holland testified he was at his cousin’s house playing Playstation 3 until his cousin suggested they go to a home on the first block of Theodore Allen Road just off Centerville Road in James City County. Desmond Holland said he took a gun he acquired “from the streets” when they went to the residence on Theodore Allen Road.
Upon arrival, they were asked to go into the backyard by the homeowner because too many people were inside. Holland said he sat on the picnic table and smoked a cigarette until Brown approached from a house across Centerville Road and joined the people in the backyard, including Holland and his cousin. Holland said Brown approached him and asked for a cigarette after drinking from a bottle of liquor. He told Brown the cigarette he was smoking was his last cigarette, and then he flicked it away as it was almost finished.
Holland testified Brown told him the man who Holland said pulled a gun on him in Charles City County the month before was a “soldier” of Brown’s and that Brown will stand behind him. Holland said Brown told him “he should have killed” him at the 2010 party where they fought and that Brown asked him if he wanted to call anyone before he died.
After getting up from the table where he was sitting, Desmond Holland said Brown appeared to reach for something underneath his jacket, so he took out his pistol and shot once at Brown and then once in the air above Brown before fleeing the area. The first shot proved fatal.
Once shot, Brown crawled back across the street to the residence from which he came, where his 89-year-old grandmother and 3-year-old daughter were on scene for his last moments. He was pronounced dead at Williamsburg Sentara Hospital a short time later. Holland said the shooting was a bid to “buy time and run away.” He turned himself into the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail about four hours later.
WJCC Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Cathy Black took issue with much of Holland’s testimony, saying his admission of guilt and his submission of a document to McGinty saying he wants to own up to his actions contrasted sharply with his testimony, which made him out to be the victim. She then asked Holland about why he needed a gun at the Theodore Allen Road residence, to which Holland said it was a “high drug, high crime area.”
During her closing arguments before sentencing, Black described Holland’s time in the criminal justice system, characterizing him as someone with anger management problems and a poor attitude who ignored repeated attempts by others to intervene in his life. She said he was “raised around guns, drugs, violence and police raids.”
“Everything in his history has pointed to this day,” Black said as she urged McGinty to exceed sentencing guidelines. The guidelines call for between five to 40 years in prison.
Desmond Holland’s attorney, Fernando Groene, said he and his client knew a lengthy sentence was coming but asked the court to consider Holland was provoked and a lack of evidence Holland was looking for trouble.
“Holland was born into a culture of violence,” Groene said. “These young people think carrying a gun, discharging them and showing them to friends is a good thing.” He asked McGinty for a sentence at the midpoint of the sentencing guidelines. The sentence imposed by McGinty was above the midpoint of the guidelines.
Desmond Holland was charged with several offenses connected to the incident, though many of them were dropped as the case proceeded through the court system. By accepting the plea agreement in January, felony charges of use of a firearm in commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon were dropped.
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