Months of acrimony over a parcel of land in the far western reaches of Albemarle County ended in gunfire this past June, leaving Krystal Dudley scarred for life and her first cousin once removed Thomas Forbes facing multiple criminal charges.
"She looks dramatically different," her sister Jamie Frazier told an Albemarle County Circuit Court jury of eight men and five women Tuesday.
Frazier sobbed as a prosecutor displayed photos of Dudley as she appeared before the shooting, including one of her smiling at an outdoor concert last year.
"She’s lost her left eye, and she’s blind in the other," said Frazier as she regained his composure. "She’s had a stroke, trouble walking, no use of her left arm and facial paralysis."
Frazier said the cognitive problems caused by her sister’s brain injury have been compounded by anxiety. Dudley has trouble even getting into a car now, he said, "because she doesn’t know where she is."
In a video filmed earlier Tuesday morning by one of Dudley’s children, she can be seen moving tentatively down a wheelchair ramp recently installed at her house, the 37-year-old woman leaning on her elderly mother for support.
Tuesday marked the opening day of Forbes’ trial.
He has been charged with the reckless handling of a gun, the use of a firearm in commission of a felony and aggravated malicious wounding. The latter is the most serious and could see Forbes sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars if found guilty.
There’s no question that Forbes and Dudley were together the day of the shooting. And there’s no question they were fighting.
The two were quarreling at and over a property in the 3200 block of Boonesville Road in western Albemarle County. Both Forbes and Dudley have claimed ownership of the land, with neither side relenting.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Susan Baumgartner described the case as straightforward.
"Thomas Forbes went there, pulled out his gun, cocked it and shot her in the head," she told the court. "That’s what this case is about."
While Baumgartner kept her opening statement short, about five minutes, defense attorney Scott Goodman said there were details the prosecution failed to mention.
Goodman said Dudley was the aggressor that day, that she punched both Forbes and his wife. And when Forbes took out a revolver, Goodman said, Dudley tried to wrest it from his hand.
"The gun went off," said Goodman. "He did not fire that gun; it was an accidental firing of that gun."
A filing shows that Goodman intends to call retired police Lt. Gary Pleasants, who served in the Charlottesville Police Department as a firearms trainer, to testify that Forbes’ .38-caliber revolver has a hair trigger.
"Mr. Pleasants personally examined and handled the gun," according to the filing, "and is of the opinion that when the hammer on this revolver is cocked it takes very light pressure on the trigger to fire the weapon."
Baumgartner, however, told jurors Tuesday that they will hear testimony that Forbes repeatedly pointed the gun at Dudley and that she was only trying to swat it away.
"It doesn’t fire unless you pull the trigger," said Baumgartner.
Held without bail at Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, Forbes appeared in court Tuesday in a long-sleeve, checked shirt and dark pants. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges against him during his arraignment.
The trial resumed Wednesday.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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