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A Richmond jury last night convicted Judy Wright of felony child neglect in the shooting death of her only granddaughter and recommended a two-year sentence, the least possible.

Wright walked from the courtroom at 8:30 p.m. into the waiting arms of her adult children outside, released on bond pending formal sentencing Jan. 6. Wright did not testify during her trial.

“I would have told the jury I was innocent,” she said as she rode an elevator to her family. “It is not a crime for a woman to go to work to support her family.”

Asked if she feared two years in prison, she said: “I can handle it.”

Five-year-old Dominique Carter was shot to death in the head by her 10-year-old uncle Aug. 12, 2008, after Wright had left the two children and another child with her mother.

The uncle, who is Wright’s youngest child and who has a long history of mental and behavioral issues, was not charged because of his age and lack of understanding of what he had done, according to Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring.

But prosecutors argued to a seven-woman, five-man jury over two days that Wright had been criminally negligent for leaving a handgun within reach of the young children when she left for night-shift work as a nursing assistant. The jury could have recommended up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The panel recommended no fine.

Five of Wright’s children were by her side at trial and testified that she has always put them first in her life, even as she fought a history of depression, stress disorders and abandonment by her male partners.

“No one ever helped her,” said daughter Sharelle Warren, describing Wright as a woman who never brooked weakness. “She would say, ‘You got to be strong. You can’t let no one see you down.’”

Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland told the jury that the death “was the most terrible tragedy any parent, sibling or child could ever imagine.” But he said the crime also shocked the community’s conscience.

“[Wright] had every right to go out and buy a gun to protect herself. . . . The question is, as a parent, someone held to a higher standard, what does she do? . . . She left that gun in a room with a 10-year-old,” Thorne-Begland said.

Wright had moved into the home in the 2400 block of M Street in Richmond’s East End just two days before the shooting. She left for work about 10:40 that night, trusting her mother to care for the three children. A few minutes later, Wright’s son took a .40-caliber handgun from her gym bag on the bedroom floor, prosecutors said. The boy then shot Dominique in the head while she was on the bed, authorities said.

An expert with the Virginia Department of Forensic Science testified yesterday that gunshot residue was found on the boy’s hands.

Prosecutors also played a video that showed two Richmond detectives interviewing Wright in the early hours of Aug. 13. A sobbing Wright told detectives the children were asleep when she left for work and described the bag where the weapon was stored.

“Typically this is a locked weapon, in a locked box, in a locked cabinet,” defense attorney Stacey Davenport said as she asked the court to strike the felony charge.

Davenport made the case that Wright was in the process of moving and didn’t know where the bag was. Wright purchased the gun in 2006 to defend herself from an abusive partner and from that time until the shooting, Wright’s son had not attempted to use the gun, Davenport said.

The boy, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile and is not being charged with any crime, faced his teary mother from the witness box on Thursday.

When asked if he could tell who shot Dominique, he asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege not to answer, Thorne-Begland said.

Authorities said the boy was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and had a history of violent behavior that included setting a house on fire, putting a hot iron on his older brother’s chest, and throwing hot water at Dominique.

On the stand yesterday, Dominique’s mother, Sharifia Warren, agreed with the defense that her younger brother was not a troubled child.

“I wouldn’t have let him be around my kids if I knew he was a danger to them,” Warren said.

She later begged the jury to be lenient in sentencing Wright, a woman who took on every challenge for her children, Warren said.

“I feel like I lost my daughter,” she said, breaking into tears. “And now I feel like I’m losing my mother.”

Contact Luz Lazo at (804) 649-6058 or
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Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or
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