westhaven Man acquitted of voluntary manslaughter

A Charlottesville Circuit Court jury last week acquitted a 32-year-old man accused in the April 2005 punching death of a Westhaven man.
Sean Orlando Scott was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter for an incident involving the victim, Gregory Eugene Johnson, 51, and his two nephews. The Daily Progress reported that Johnson had buried his mother earlier that day, and was bringing his nephews to visit a friend in the Westhaven complex. The nephews reportedly became drunk, and then brawled with Scott after he approached them. Johnson, attempting to break up the fight, was struck once by Scott, at which point he fell and hit his head. Johnson suffered a fractured skull and died four days later at UVA Hospital.
Trina Brown, who was Johnson’s friend and a witness in the case, wrote a letter to the court defending Scott. “When Sean [Scott] realized that it was Mr. Johnson he had hit, he ran straight over and looked down on him and said, ‘Man, I am sorry. I didn’t know it was you.’”
Scott’s defense attorney, William Thompson, argued that Scott acted out of self-defense and that his actions lacked the malice necessary for a manslaughter conviction.
City Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman says self-defense was a likely factor in Scott’s acquittal. “The issue isolated in the case…was that, given the circumstances under which the blow was struck, was Mr. Scott, as the events appeared to him, reasonably in fear of sustaining bodily harm?” In such cases, a jury must also find that the defendant did not use excessive force when defending himself.—Meg McEvoy