Verdict in Frederick trial was no surprise

Ryan Frederick probably got the best result he could hope for.

The Chesapeake man was convicted this week in the Jan. 17, 2008, shooting of police Detective Jarrod Shivers during a drug raid at Frederick's home. He won't face life in prison, however, because a Chesapeake Circuit Court jury found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors were hoping for a conviction of capital murder, even though they had decided not to seek the death penalty.

Still, if anecdotal evidence is any guide, Frederick shouldn't have expected freedom as he awaited Wednesday's verdict. I didn't expect a Chesapeake jury to exonerate an admitted pot smoker who killed, even accidentally, a veteran police officer. The jury's ruling - somewhere between acquittal and life in prison - was about par for the course in such tragedies.

"The conviction rate for police homicide cases is extra high. But there are some problematic homicides," said Eugene O'Donnell, professor of police studies and law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

O'Donnell and other observers said it's rare for any individual, even claiming self-defense and not knowing an officer is present, to get off scot-free when an officer is slain. That's what Frederick said happened when he fired his handgun, killing Shivers. Narcotics officers had come to Frederick's Portlock home to investigate a possible marijuana growing operation.

It's difficult to compile statistics on cases with similar circumstances. Agencies and research centers contacted this week said they don't know if any group keeps such records. What academics do say is the hurdle the defense has to clear is especially tall; after all, the police officer was simply doing his job, trying to investigate a possible criminal.

The Frederick ruling "was an obvious compromise verdict," said Don Smith, director of the online criminal justice program at Old Dominion University, who has questioned the Chesapeake police show of force during the 2008 raid. "I think it was a clear message to the Police Department to not [execute warrants] that way."

Still, individuals can't just shoot unknown persons at their door, Smith added: "It could have been a fireman or a neighbor."

I attended several days of court proceedings during the two-week trial and watched trial video evidence posted at pilotonline.com. Certain elements stood out:

• Frederick's version of events essentially remained the same, even when he took the witness stand.
• None of his half-dozen neighbors testified they heard or saw police officers before Shivers was shot. Officers testified they knocked loudly and announced their presence before smashing Frederick's door with a battering ram.
• Special prosecutors made a mistake in calling jailhouse informant Jamaal Skeeter, the only person to claim Frederick said that he saw police outside his home before he fired. Skeeter is a professional witness who Portsmouth prosecutors said had no credibility and was trying to get a reduced prison sentence.

As I write this, jurors contacted by The Virginian-Pilot have said nothing about their deliberations. But you'd think the testimony described above weighed heavily in their decision.

For example, it was stunning that Frederick was even charged with capital murder, which required prosecutors to show his actions were willful, deliberate, premeditated and intentional. His interviews in the media and his televised statement to police have rung true: that he was fearful because of a burglary of marijuana plants a few days earlier, that he fired only after someone breached his door, that he didn't realize until he surrendered that police were investigating him - someone with no prior criminal record.

Nor were the circumstances anything like that of the man convicted of capital murder in the death of a Norfolk police officer in 2005. Thomas Porter executed Stanley Reaves in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Porter was a felon who wasn't supposed to have a gun, and he faced five years for possessing it if Reaves had arrested him.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have voiced displeasure with the Frederick verdict, and Frederick's attorney has said he will appeal the judge's decision to give the jury five homicide options. As gut wrenching as this case has been, though, the verdict was fair.

Roger Chesley is associate editor of The Pilot's editorial page. Reach him at (757) 446-2329 or at roger.chesley@pilotonline.com.