Portsmouth man guilty in father's stabbing death

PORTSMOUTH

A Circuit Court jury Wednesday rejected a man's claim he was only protecting himself during an altercation that left his 75-year-old father stabbed to death in a city courthouse, convicting him of first-degree murder and recommending that he spend the rest of his life in prison.

Formal sentencing wasn't immediately scheduled for Michael Lancaster, 55.

He took a step forward as the life-sentence recommendation was read, and five sheriff's deputies quickly surrounded him.

The jury had taken about two hours to decide that it was murder when Lancaster stabbed his father, Franklin Lancaster Sr., multiple times Nov. 13 near the magistrate's office in the basement of the General District Court building, which also houses police offices.

The sentence recommendation took less than 20 minutes.

During the trial, an officer testified that he saw Michael Lancaster, his hands dripping with blood, standing outside the magistrate's office after the incident. He had a history of not getting along with his father and had been in prison for shooting him more than 30 years ago. The day he died, Franklin Lancaster was trying to seek legal protection against his son.

"Our position all along is that he is an extremely dangerous person," said Commonwealth's Attorney Earle Mobley, who prosecuted the case. "And based on the brutality of the attack, and his propensity to continue to commit violent crimes, I wouldn't have been satisfied with anything less than life."

Michael Lancaster has convictions dating to 1974 for murder, arson, robbery, escape and assault, Mobley said.

Lancaster's youngest sister - the victim's daughter - said she didn't like to see this happen to her brother, but "justice is served."

"He can't handle life on the outside," Gwen Oliver said. "My daddy didn't deserve to die like that."

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com