By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke (Va.) Times
August 29, 2008
Summary: Anthony Lucas had been accused of firing a pistol into a Tech football player’s apartment.
CHRISTIANSBURG — Anthony Jobair Lucas smiled big for the first time in two days Thursday when a Montgomery County jury found him not guilty of firing a gun into Victor “Macho” Harris’ Blacksburg apartment in November.
“I feel relieved,” Lucas said after the verdict. “I felt good about our case.”
He admitted, however, that he had some question about how 12 people on a jury might perceive his version of events.
Lucas was charged with one felony count in connection with the shooting, which occurred at Chasewood Downs apartments about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 11 after a Tech home game against Florida State. If he had been convicted, Lucas could have faced up to 10 years in prison.
Jurors took a little more than an hour to sift through evidence presented Wednesday and Thursday by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nathaniel Walker and find Lucas not guilty. Walker presented 10 witnesses and more than two dozen pieces of evidence, including cellphone records that showed calls between Augustus Pajibo Peal — the other man charged in connection with the shooting — and Lucas minutes before the shooting occurred.
Defense attorney Brad McConnell put one witness on the stand: his client. The decision came down to credibility, McConnell said in his closing argument. He called Peal, the commonwealth’s star witness, a liar and argued that Peal gave contradictory statements and falsely accused Lucas in a bid for leniency on his own case, which is pending.
“The prosecution has proved exhaustively that a shooting occurred,” he said. But none of the physical evidence presented “connects my client in any way, shape or form to the crime.”
The commonwealth’s case against Lucas was based mostly on the testimony of Peal, a former Tech student and member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Both Peal and Lucas, also a Kappa Alpha Psi brother, said that members of their fraternity have been involved in a long-running feud with some Hokie football players.
Peal implicated Lucas on Wednesday, saying Lucas wanted revenge on former wide receiver Justin Harper after Harper beat him up twice.
Blacksburg Detective Scott Craig testified that Lucas reported being injured in two fights with Harper, one in 2005 and another at Oge-Chi’s nightclub on Draper Road just before the shooting occurred. On Thursday, Lucas admitted being angry at Harper but told the court he had nothing to do with the shooting.
Peal had testified that Lucas borrowed Peal’s 9 mm handgun after the November altercation and asked for a ride to Harris’ apartment. Peal’s former roommate Seth Lederman is alleged to have accompanied Peal and Lucas that morning and to have fired rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into Harris’ apartment. Someone also fired at least seven 9 mm rounds at the building.
Police said that a 9 mm handgun used in the shooting belonged to Peal. That gun has never been found, but ballistics tests linked 9 mm bullet casings taken from the Chasewood parking lot to a similar spent casing police found in a drawer in Peal’s apartment.
On arriving at the scene, police found bullet holes inside and outside Harris’ apartment. No one was injured, and Lederman has not been charged in the case. At first Peal told police he had nothing to do with the shooting but changed his story in June. Harper, now a rookie NFL player for the Baltimore Ravens, did not testify.
Peal is awaiting trial on charges of illegal possession of a handgun and of firing into an occupied building. He and Lederman have also been charged in connection with a string of burglaries in Roanoke and Montgomery counties.
Copyright 2008 The Roanoke (Va.) Times
Tags: Anthony Lucas, Baltimore Ravens, Blacksburg, Chasewood Downs, Justin Harper, NFL, shooting, The Roanoke Times, trial, Victor "Macho" Harris, Virginia, Virginia Tech football