Deputy shoots teen in standoff
Youth in intensive care after conflict at York County complex
A 16-yearold boy was critically wounded when a sheriff ’s deputy shot him during an armed standoff at an apartment complex Sunday evening.
York-Poquoson Sheriff Ronald Montgomery said the teen had pointed a gun “in the direction of deputies” when another deputy — who was not in the line of fire at that point — fired three rounds with a sheriff ’s office rifle from the rear right side of the teen.
The teen was struck twice in the lower abdomen about 15 minutes after the deputies arrived.
“Once he went down, deputies moved in and secured the firearm that he had,” Montgomery said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “And we immediately began first aid.”
Medics from a York-Poquoson Fire Department ambulance that was parked outside the complex came to the scene. “We had a medic that was staged at the time, so they were there on scene almost immediately as well,” Montgomery said.
The teen was still in the intensive care unit at the hospital Monday afternoon, still listed in critical condition. “We’ve been checking on him several times a day,” Montgomery said.
After the shooting, Montgomery said, deputies confiscated the weapon, a 9mm handgun with an extended clip that was holding about 23 live rounds. One round, he said, was found on the sedan’s floorboard.
It all began, Montgomery said, when the sheriff’s office got a call Sunday afternoon from one of the teen’s family members, “who had been alerted by another family member” that the teen “just didn’t seem to be right.”
The 16-year-old lives with
in a wheelchair after having been assaulted by other inmates over the weekend, according to defense attorneys Emily Munn and Steven Mirman.
His brother, Zebulon Weinschel, 42, however, is still charged in the case and is awaiting trial.
Several relatives of the man the brothers are accused of killing — 26-yearold Joshua Sykes of Portsmouth — left the courtroom Monday angry and cursing.
Sykes was found dead in his home near Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Sept. 4, 2017. He’d been shot once in the head. The Weinschel brothers were arrested in Southampton County later that same day on drug and firearm charges, according to court records. They were soon linked to the Portsmouth slaying and charged in it several months later.
Alexander Weinschel agreed to testify against his brother and told investigators they’d gone to Sykes house to buy heroin. Alexander Weinschel said he was inside making the purchase when his brother came in, shot Sykes, and then threatened to shoot him if he didn’t help gather items from the house. They left with a wall safe, PlayStation game console and some jewelry.
Sykes’ relatives said they were upset with how the case has been handled since the beginning, and were particularly angry with the Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney’s office and chief prosecutor Stephanie Morales.
A spokesperson for Morales’ office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
“Their office didn’t do their (expletive) job,” said Sykes’ uncle Kenneth Gainey. “They dropped the ball and they know they dropped the ball. She (Morales) needs to go.”
Gainey and his sister, Vickey Gainey, said prosecutors didn’t keep them adequately informed as the case dragged on. Kenneth Gainey said he’d frequently come to the courthouse to try to find out where things stood.
“All these years I thought this would eventually work out and we’d get justice,” Vickey Gainey said. “But all (prosecutors) did was shuffle it along and now look what happened. They were too lazy to file the necessary paperwork, and yet they’re still getting a paycheck.”
In felony cases in Virginia in which a defendant is ordered jailed until trial, the law states that a trial must be held within five months of the indictment date, unless the defendant waives their right to a speedy trial. Such waivers are frequently made so that the defense attorneys can have enough time to prepare, and further trial date continuances are also common.
But in Weinschel’s case, there was no record of him ever waiving his right to a speedy trial, Munn said, nor was there any record of him even being arraigned. Munn and Mirman didn’t get involved in the case until October, when Weinschel’s family hired them. Before that, he’d been represented by two different sets of court-appointed attorneys, the lawyers said.
The case is at least the third major felony case in Portsmouth in the past year that has been dismissed by a judge because of issues with the prosecution.
The first dismissal came in August and involved a woman charged with child abuse and other related charges after a fire broke out at an illegal daycare she was running and left several children injured. The other case involved a man accused of killing another man outside a strip club. In both cases, the judges ruled prosecutors had failed to turn over information to the defense in a timely manner.