Guilty of manslaughter, Ryan Frederick faces 10 years

CHESAPEAKE

The trial of Ryan Frederick in the shooting death of a police officer - a case that tore apart two families and a community - left all sides disappointed Wednesday.

The jury refused to convict Frederick of capital murder but recommended a maximum 10-year prison term for voluntary manslaughter.

Family, friends and colleagues of Detective Jarrod Shivers, shot and killed by Frederick on Jan. 17, 2008, wept in astonishment as the jury returned its verdict. Across the aisle, Frederick's family and supporters were relieved.

About an hour later, the jury returned with its recommended sentence, and the emotions turned.

"Yes!" could be heard from a number of people on the Shivers side.

Those on Frederick's side began to weep.

Sheryl Morales, an aunt of Frederick's, initially said she was grateful about the verdict.

"I knew he was telling the truth from the beginning," she said. "I was hoping for the best. An acquittal would have been better."

After the sentencing, she ran from the courthouse in tears. Only a friend of Frederick's remained to talk.

"I think it's a shame that a good young man like Ryan Frederick should spend 10 years in prison with a bunch of thugs," said the friend, who identified himself as Frederick Stump. "I feel sorry for the Shivers family, but I also feel sorry for Ryan."

Special prosecutor Paul Ebert said Shivers' family "was very upset" and did not want to talk afterward.

"I think it's just an extreme tragedy," he said.

Frederick could have faced life in prison for a capital murder conviction. Instead, the jurors opted for voluntary manslaughter, a charge defined as a killing in the heat of passion and one of the other options given to them by the judge before the deliberations began. Afterward, neither side said the verdict was appropriate.

"The people decided he was not acting in self-defense but in the heat of passion," Ebert said. "That's usually two people in a fight. There was no fight here."

Frederick's attorney, James Broccoletti, though grateful his client didn't get a capital murder conviction, agreed that this was not a "heat of passion" killing.

He vowed to appeal, saying the 10-year maximum sentence reflected the jury's "outrage and emotion" but ignored his client's clean record and character.

"This case isn't over by a long shot," he said.

The jury acquitted Frederick of use of a firearm in the commission of murder. It did convict him of misdemeanor possession of marijuana and recommended a 30-day jail sentence and a $500 fine.

The jury rejected the prosecution's contention that Frederick was growing marijuana for distribution, apparently disregarding the testimony of Steven Rene Wright, a police informant who turned in Frederick.

The victim's widow, Nicole Shivers, sat in the front row on each of the trial's 12 days. She testified at the start of the trial and wanted to testify during the sentencing phase but was too distraught, Ebert said.

As she waited for the jury to return with the sentence, she clutched tissues and wept silently into the shoulders of her family and friends. She left the courtroom before the sentence was read.

The panel also apparently rejected the testimony of jailhouse informant Jamal Skeeter, who also goes by Jamaal. He testified that Frederick said in jail that he saw the police outside his home before he fired.

That was the only evidence the prosecution presented to show that Frederick knew police were outside, but Skeeter's reputation sank after the defense discovered Skeeter's history as a frequent witness looking to shave time off his 14-year prison term.

Circuit Court Judge Marjorie A.T. Arrington set the formal sentencing date for May 8. She can opt to suspend some of the jury's recommended sentence.

For the Shivers family and the Police Department, the verdict did not provide closure.

"Closure?" said Jack Crimmins, president of the Chesapeake Coalition of Police. "There's no closure."

"Their verdict today has jeopardized the lives of police officers," Crimmins said. "I think the jury failed. They failed the community. You've got a man involved in an illegal enterprise, the police come to his house, and he takes the matter into his own hands."

After the verdict, Ebert, the special prosecutor from Prince William County, pleaded with the jury to give the family solace and "sheer retribution" by recommending the maximum 10-year sentence for manslaughter.

In tearful testimony during the sentencing phase, Shivers' father and sister described what the last year has been like.

Jennifer Shivers of Oakland, Calif., said Shivers' young son often runs to the front door wondering when his dad is coming home, and his oldest daughter still has nightmares of her dad trapped in a box.

"It kills me," she said.

James R. Shivers of Downingtown, Pa., told the jury about his son's childhood heroes, how he volunteered as a firefighter at 16 and then served in the Navy for eight years before dedicating a career to police work.

He recalled how, two months before he died, his son insisted on a family portrait with all four generations of Shiverses in the picture. He held up the picture for the jury to see.

"Everybody has been healing a little bit every day," he told the jury.

"We may never be completely healed," he continued. "I've never been through this before."

Pilot writer Kristin Davis contributed to this report.

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com