Shooter’s attorney says murder was self-defense

A grand jury will decide this month whether to maintain a second-degree murder charge for Jermaine Leon Thurston, 22, who fatally shot 21-year-old Lamont Antonio Reaves in June. If the charges hold, Thurston could serve up to 40 years.
    Defense attorney Deborah C. Wyatt says Thurston was a good kid who was threatened by neighborhood thugs. “He’s never even been close to trouble before. He’s toed the line completely, he’s been a hardworking guy,” Wyatt says.
    In a videotaped interview shown at a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Thurston agreed to talk to police without a lawyer, and said that he had felt threatened by Reaves. Thurston and Reaves exchanged words on the 900 block of S. First Street on June 18. Witnesses testified that Reaves wanted to beat up Thurston and suggested that the two fight with their hands. Reaves approached Thurston, who fell backward and shot Reaves in the abdomen with his 9mm handgun. Reaves was taken to UVA hospital, where he died. A woman standing nearby was also injured. Thurston turned himself in to police shortly after the incident.
    Wyatt says Thurston, who grew up on First Street, was armed because of a violent incident the previous fall. “He was the victim of a shooting, the bullet is still in his leg. His friends said you need to be armed, but he never had a weapon before that,” Wyatt says.
    Wyatt says she anticipates the second-degree murder charge will likely hold, though she argued for the charge to be reduced to voluntary manslaughter. Thurston is also being charged with malicious wounding and two firearms charges. Thurston’s jury trial date is set for January 2, 2007. He is being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. The shooting marked Charlottesville’s first murder charge of the year.