Monday, February 17, 2025

Jury Finds Man Guilty of All Charges in York County Armed Abduction

Christopher Junior Thompson (Photo courtesy York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office)
Christopher Junior Thompson (Photo courtesy York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office)

A jury returned guilty verdicts on 14 charges against a man accused of the armed abduction of a woman and her two children last April.

Christopher Junior Thompson, a Jamaican native, approached the woman and her two children at around 12:45 p.m. April 7, 2014 as they entered their car at the Wine & Cheese Shop in the Villages at Kingsmill.

Thompson asked the woman for money, according to the police report, and when she responded she did not have any, he revealed a gun and forced her into her car.

Lt. Dennis Ivey with the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said Thompson forced the woman to drive to an ATM at the Shell gas station across the street, but when it was discovered the ATM was out of service he forced her to drive to a nearby BB&T Bank on McLaws Circle.

While at the bank’s ATM, the woman was able to say “help me” to another woman at the bank, and that woman called 911, Ivey said.

When he heard sirens, Thompson ordered the woman to drive to the area of Parchment Boulevard and Merrimac Trail in York County, Ivey said. Thompson took the woman’s cell phone and made threats her not to report the incident to law enforcement. After several minutes, Thompson got out of the car.

Thompson was arrested the next day at his home in Newport News, where Investigator Kristin Schomburg, an officer with YPSO and the lead investigator in Thompson’s case, said she found him smelling of marijuana and with bloodshot, glassy eyes.

Thompson tried unsuccessfully to argue that he did not remember speaking to or being arrested by Schomburg and therefore his statements at the time should be suppressed from the case during a pre-trial hearing last December.

By the time his case went to trial Dec. 17, Thompson was facing charges that included three counts of abduction, six counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony and one count each of attempted robbery, armed robbery, wearing a mask in public, carjacking and credit card larceny.

Thompson was also charged with possession of a gun by a non-violent felon, which the jury was not asked to consider as part of the Dec. 17 trial. Commonwealth’s Attorney Benjamin Hahn said this charge was severed from the rest of the charges due to the prejudicial nature of the knowledge that Thompson was previously found guilty of a felony, and it may be brought back at a later date.

The jury found Thompson guilty on all counts and recommended 114-year prison sentence. A judge will make the final sentencing decision when Thompson reappears before the court April 19.

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