While an Albemarle County woman who was shot in the face remains hospitalized struggling with blindness and paralysis, the man accused of shooting her was denied bail and saw the charge against him advance Thursday.
Toward the end of this contentious hearing over the late June shooting of 35-year-old Krystal Frazier, the prosecutor delivered a revelation that seemed to surprise everyone in the courtroom, including the attorney for 61-year-old defendant Thomas Guy Forbes.
"This is not the first time Mr. Forbes has shot someone and claimed self-defense," said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Susan Baumgartner.
Clutching conviction papers obtained from the clerk of the Albemarle County Circuit Court, Baumgartner suggested that Forbes may actually deserve a harsher charge than the one he’s currently facing: reckless handling of a firearm resulting in injury.
"I believe the issue for trial," Baumgartner said, "is whether this is a reckless handling case or an aggravated malicious wounding case."
That appears to be up to a grand jury to decide. General District Court Judge Matthew Quatrara certified the lesser charge, which carries a maximum five-year term. However, legal analyst David Heilberg told The Daily Progress that a grand jury could indict on the stronger charge which can bring a life term.
"Ultimately, the jury gets to pick what they think it really is," said Heilberg, noting that the prosecution may have launched the case on the lesser charge to streamline the preliminary hearing.
Forbes has been held without bail at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and Quatrara refused bail for Forbes Thursday.
"Based on the concern for the safety of the community, the court is not going to set bond," the judge said.
Wearing a striped jail jumpsuit and long white beard, Forbes seemed attentive in court but was described by his own lawyer as elderly and appeared older than his 61 years.
The court heard from only one witness at the Thursday hearing, but it was one who was close to what happened. Travis Lambert testified how he and his girlfriend, Frazier, were summoned early on the morning of June 23 to a disputed family property by two people living there. He indicated that those two — Lambert’s mother and Frazier’s elderly step-grandfather — were distressed that Forbes and his wife, who had recently won a stake in that property, had shown up on the tract.
"We told them to leave," said Lambert. "An argument began. Mrs. Forbes slapped Krystal."
As slapping and hair-pulling ensued between the two women, Lambert said, he shouted at Forbes.
"Put the f–king gun away and leave," Lambert said he told the gun-wielding man.
That’s when Forbes fired his first shot, Lambert said. The shot was up in the air, a warning shot, as Lambert described it.
"He started aiming the gun towards Krystal," Lambert testified.
Lambert said his girlfriend then threw up her hands in a cross pattern in front of her face. He reenacted her alleged arm positions in court, and added that she repeatedly extended her left arm to swat the gun away as it moved into her personal space.
And then Frazier was shot in the face, he said.
"I immediately dropped to my knees," said Lambert.
As he tried to apply pressure to her wound, Lambert said that Forbes said something.
"She f–king deserved it," was the alleged statement. "He said it three times."
Forbes’ defense attorney Scott Goodman pressed Lambert on numerous points, asking if Frazier was punching Forbes or tearing at his shirt, and suggested that Frazier had beaten Forbes wife, a woman smaller in size. Lambert denied the allegations.
"He stood his ground; she stood her ground," said Lambert.
Noting that a preliminary hearing does not typically call anyone but witnesses for the prosecution, Goodman attempted to use arguments to derail the scenario that Lambert depicted. He said that the Forbeses were the ones attacked.
"They were assaulted," said Goodman. "There’s no question that Krystal approached him in an angry manner, an aggressive manner."
Goodman alluded to a "false will" that had recently been defeated in court by his client to give him a stake in the contested property. It lies near Prize Hill Church in the 3200 block of Boonesville Road, a rural part of northern Albemarle County near the Greene County line. Goodman said that Forbes and his wife were headed over that morning to assure the elderly man living there that he would not be evicted.
"He never got a chance to tell him that," Goodman said.
While Goodman attempted to portray Forbes as a man routinely holstered and armed, the prosecutor took a dimmer view.
"There is a lot of bad blood here," said Baumgartner. "Bringing a gun to this site was stunningly violent."
As for Frazier, she remains hospitalized, blind and suffering from paralysis of her left arm and left leg. A GoFundMe has been established to help cover the cost of her medical treatment.
"She’s in total darkness," her boyfriend testified. "Blind."
As for Forbes’ prior trouble with firearms, he was arrested in 35 years ago after opening fire with a shotgun on a romantic rival. The other man, armed with the shotgun of his own, also fired.
A contemporary account in The Daily Progress indicates that a third man, who arrived with Forbes’ foe, was hit with multiple rounds in the crossfire while sitting in a truck. Forbes was found guilty of unlawful wounding in November 1989 and was subsequently convicted three times of violating his parole or probation, according to court records.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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