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Volume 57, Number 51 • December 22, 2011
Davis given 5 years in fatal shooting By Ken Odor jodor@goochland gazette.com
Kwamane G. Davis of Cumberland County will spend five years in prison for the September, 2010 slaying of Dwayne Richard Hardy of Goochland. Davis, 22, shot Hardy after seeing his cousin Alvin Daniels shot in the back three times at a late night party more than a year ago in western Goochland County. In retaliation, he picked up a shotgun and pursued the shooter, Hardy, killing him with a shot to the back of the head. Davis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Oct. 26, when he was originally scheduled for trial on a second degree murder charge before a plea agreement was reached. Tuesday Goochland Circuit Court Judge Timothy K. Sanner sentenced Davis to 10 years with five suspended after hearing arguments from the prosecution and defense. “The law does not allow vigilante justice,” said Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Stokes,
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who called for a sentence of five to 10 years in prison for Davis. But Defense attorney Michael S. Davis said if a law enforcement officer had acted as his client did at the scene he would have been praised and placed blame for the shootings on Hardy. “Were it not for Mr. Hardy’s actions none of this would have taken place,” said Davis, who asked for probation for his client. The violence that led to Hardy’s death stemmed from a late night party in the 3600 block of HadensvilleFife Road on Sept. 12, 2010 when an argument between two members of rival groups escalated. Sanner rejecting the comparison of Davis’s action with that of a law enforcement officer, and lamented the gang problem that led to the shootings. Stokes said he was satisfied with the sentence. “You can’t take justice into your own hands,” he said. Davis, a former police officer for nine years, said he had hoped for more leniency in the sentence.
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File Photo by Ken Odor
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors William E. Quarles Jr., left, and Manuel Alvarez Jr. listen to a presentation at the Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum earlier this fall. Alvarez, who won the District 2 race, outspent Quarles by a wide margin.
Money spent translates into victory in Goochland supervisor races spent their opponents, according to figures provided by the Virginia Public Access Project last week. The campaign reporting information is current through December 1, with the next filing deadline January 17. By Ken Odor In some cases, the victor outspent jodor@goochlandgazette.com the loser by a factor of four or five to one. In one race the challenger spent The winners in the four contested more than 100 times more money than Goochland supervisors’ races all out-
Same holds true in all but one School Board election contest
the loser! District 2 represented the most lopsided spending by the two candidates. Challenger Manuel Alvarez Jr. outspent incumbent and current Board of Supervisors Chairman William E. Quarles Jr. $10,374 to $100. Quarles had pledged not to accept campaign
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