Release a blow to victim’s families
Man was declared insane in 2019 Newport News double killing
A man who has admitted to killing two men at a popular southeast Newport News restaurant five years ago is free — albeit with strict conditions in place.
Darrell Keith Chaney Jr. — who in September 2020 was declared not guilty by reason of insanity in the August 2019 double slaying at Dunn’s River Jamaican & Caribbean Restaurant — has been getting treatment at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. That’s a state facility in Annandale under the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
Chaney has been taking his medications and made good progress, a state official testified last week. Chaney, now 42, has been getting two-day passes to leave the facility over the past year and has always returned as promised “without incident.”
“He’s been very compliant,” Chymaine Brown, an official with the Newport News Community Services Board, testified at an April 12 hearing in Newport News Circuit Court. “There haven’t been any acts of aggression, even when provoked by his peers at the hospital.”
Circuit Court Judge Matthew W. Hoffman reviewed Chaney’s progress and granted him “conditional release” at the recommendation of state officials. So long as Chaney abides by certain conditions imposed by the court — including a “transition period” at Gateway Homes in Chesterfield — he will have more day-today ability to live his life as he so chooses.
But the families of the two slain men — restaurant owner Barrington Anthony Brown, 62, and longtime employee Akhi Ar-Rad Abdul Haqq Murad, 55 — are angry at Chaney’s release, saying he killed two men who were pillars of the community and has left a great void.
Murad’s sister, Sheila Sanders, wrote in a letter to the judge — one of nine such letters sent to Hoffman — imploring him not to let Chaney go.
“They were not only upstanding members of the community,” she told Hoffman. “They were also kindhearted individuals who always went out of their way to help others … We have suffered a tremendous loss. Releasing Mr. Chaney will add to our grief.”
Anita Smith, who had been married to Murad for five years when he was killed, said it's not right Chaney has the “opportunity” to demonstrate improvement in his mental health — while the two men didn't get the opportunity to live “and we have to suffer every day.”
“He was a provider, he was a protector,” Smith said of her husband. “He was a good individual.”
Smith said one of her sons, now 7, remembers his father slightly. But her other son, now 5, never even had that chance.
“But this person is out and walking free,” Smith testified. “He gets to see family. I don't think it's fair.”
She turned to Chaney and said: “You took a great man from us.”
Smith lamented that Chaney hadn't apologized to the families. After the hearing, a Daily Press reporter approached Chaney and asked if he had anything he wanted to say to Brown's and Murad's families.
“I'm truly sorry with what took place,” Chaney said.
Asked if he would like to meet with the families to talk about it, Chaney said, “I would love to.”
Still up in the air is a pending attempted murder charge out of Tennessee.
At the time of the Newport News double killing, Chaney was out on bond from a case in which he was accused of stabbing a neighbor in Clarksville, Tennessee, five months earlier. The county's top prosecutor said he is deciding whether he will have Chaney extradited back to Tennessee to face that charge.
“There's some concern about bringing him here,” said Robert Nash, the district attorney in Montgomery County, Tennessee.
“Just to be frank, I don't know if I want to bring this type of person back to the borders of Tennessee,” Nash said. “If he's found insane again, we're just gonna have to cut him loose on our streets. But I've been having those discussions, and we're considering our options.”
Chaney — who grew up in Newport News — came back to Virginia in the spring of 2019, violating a bond condition that he not leave Tennessee.
He then became connected to Dunn's River restaurant, on Jefferson Avenue in southeast Newport News.
Brown had helped the then-homeless Chaney out, paying for him to stay at a local motel the night before the restaurant owner was killed.
Chaney was inside the restaurant about 1:20 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2019.
Prosecutors said during a 2020 hearing that a customer came in with a patient for lunch, while Chaney was talking with Murad at a nearby table.
But Chaney became “irate” when Murad began waiting on the woman and her patient, suddenly taking out a gun and shooting Murad in the head, then shot Brown behind the counter as customers watched.
“God is with you,” Chaney told another customer whose life was spared.
Police found Chaney sitting on Jefferson Avenue a couple of blocks from the eatery. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and several gun charges. When police interviewed him later, he was “singing and rapping.”
Chaney wasn't new to the criminal justice system, with plenty of charges against him that ended up dropped.
That included a November 2016 Newport News shooting case that resulted in a SWAT team raid. Chaney was charged with arson for a small fire in that case — but not for the shooting that court records say he confessed to.
But even when cases against Chaney resulted in convictions, as with the arson, they didn't result in much prison time.
Just three months before the double killing, a misdemeanor assault and battery charge against Chaney was dismissed in Virginia Beach — on the basis of good behavior — even as he was locked up in Tennessee on the stabbing. Virginia Beach prosecutors have said they didn't know about the Tennessee case.
A Richmond forensic psychologist, Elizabeth Wheeler, evaluated Chaney and determined in March 2020 that he was insane at the time of the 2019 offense. She said Chaney suffered from bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and other issues and was hospitalized four times between 2001 to 2004.
When prosecutors asked for a second evaluation, another forensic psychologist, Weare Zwemer of Chesapeake, independently determined that Chaney was insane at the time of the offense.
At the time, Circuit Court Judge Timothy Fisher told the families that there's no process under Virginia law to have Chaney evaluated a third time. “I don't like this,” Fisher said, but “this is the law in the commonwealth of Virginia, and frankly in every other state … I can't do anything about it.”
Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn said there was nothing more that could be done.
“We're disappointed, and I know the families are in pain,” Gwynn said in September 2020. “We understand that. We believe that people should be appropriately punished for the offenses. But as you know, in Virginia you cannot convict a criminally insane person of a crime.”
Under the conditions recommended by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services — and imposed by Hoffman April 12 — Chaney will live at the Gateway Homes in Chesterfield County for 60 days as a transition period. He can't leave Virginia without the agreement of the local Community Services Boards.
He's not allowed to use alcohol or illegal drugs, must take his medications as prescribed, and could be returned to a state hospital if his mental health deteriorates. He also can't own a gun, and can't “associate” with people who own guns. He also must participate in 30 to 40 hours of structured activities per week that must be approved by the Community Services Board.
Hoffman said he heard the concerns of the families opposing the conditional release, to include the nine letters he received from them. He told Chaney that he has an opportunity to better his life but doesn't want to hear about any violations.
“If there is one misstep that I hear about,” Hoffman said, “then I will bring you before me as soon as possible.” The judge set a review date of April 2025.