“I fell into the wrong crowd,” said the young defendant, “trying to fit in.”
Eighteen-year-old Nyeem Rysuan Hill was on the witness stand Monday trying to explain why he went to a local playground with two guns, including an AR-15-style assault rifle, when he already had a juvenile record that precluded him from possessing firearms.
After his testimony, his lawyer Lacey Parker raised her voice in the Charlottesville Circuit Court to proclaim that in a world drenched with blood and guns that her client’s behavior was understandable. However, Judge Claude Worrell decided to assign an active sentence of 14 months.
“There’s a lot that Ms. Parker says that makes sense,” said Worrell. “I disagree with some of the Second Amendment stuff.”
However, Worrell pointed out that the right for law-abiding citizens to carry firearms has been upheld by a majority of the members of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“They don’t mean you,” said Worrell, staring at Hill, “because you’re a convicted felon.”
As revealed at his last hearing, Hill was involved in a shootout and convicted of receiving a stolen car before he turned 18. Since those crimes, however, he got a job at a Scottsville-area motel and restaurant and impressed several adults who wrote letters about his desire to enroll in a community college.
The bespectacled young man’s path to productivity hit a detour, however, on Nov. 15 when police were called to the playground of the Westhaven public housing complex in Charlottesville. Hill was livestreaming himself handling a pair of weapons, the assault rifle and a pistol.
“He’s playing around with these firearms, using them in a way that was very foolish,” said Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina-Alice Antony. “We see too many young individuals carrying firearms for no good reason.”
“He did that so that he can feel safe,” countered Parker, Hill’s attorney from the Office of the Public Defender. “You have a right to protect yourself with firearms when firearms are all over.”
Monday’s proceedings were a continuation of a hearing that started and stopped on April 23 when the judge expressed frustration over the proliferation of guns in the community. As he did at the prior hearing, Worrell mentioned the 2023 murder of Cody Smith on the University of Virginia-adjacent Corner, only this time Worrell had just pronounced a 43-year sentence upon Smith’s killer, who admitted he “snapped” when he unexpectedly encountered Smith.
“He saw someone he had a minor dispute with,” said Worrell, lamenting that 22-year-old Lakori Brooks unloaded multiple bullets into Smith.
“Why?” Worrell asked. “Because he had a gun.”
The judge never smiled during Monday’s hearing, and he expressed dismay over his task.
“I’ve got prison bed space,” said Worrell, “and I use it almost every day.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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