Teen gets 32 years in Ocean View mob attack

NORFOLK

Ieshia Rountree asked the judge's permission to turn and face the family of the man she was convicted of killing.

She cried as she spoke to James Robertson's parents.

"I do apologize that you lost your son," she said Friday. "I promise you on my life, I did not kill your son."

A jury convicted Rountree, 17, in December on charges of murder, lynching by mob, robbery and malicious wounding, and weapons charges. A co-defendant, Nichelle Carter, was convicted at the same time. The girls are among 11 people accused in Robertson's beating death in East Ocean View in July 2007. Two other men were beaten but escaped.

Both girls were 15 at the time of the attack, which meant their sentences would be left to a judge to decide rather than to a jury to recommend.

Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. sentenced Rountree on Friday to serve 32 years in prison.

Rountree spoke at length before Martin's ruling. She told the Robertsons she had a difficult life, with a disabled mother and an absent father.

"I grew up in that neighborhood," she said. "I was one of the few that did go to school. I did go to church."

Her aunt Sheila Washington testified that when she suspected Rountree had become affiliated with a gang, she tried to find help and arranged for her niece to meet with their pastor. Rountree promised him she would go to school, Washington said, and promised to show the pastor her report cards.

Rountree's lawyer, Emily Munn, argued that the teenager was present when Robertson was attacked but that she was not part of the group that planned the robbery, lured the men there and then beat them. Munn urged Martin to consider sentencing Rountree to time in the Department of Juvenile Justice rather than prison.

"She should have stood up to her friends. She should have called 911," Munn said. "That's a tall order for any 15-year-old."

Prosecutor Jim Entas said Rountree was an admitted gang member who continued her bad behavior while in jail.

"She belongs in prison," he told Martin.

Rountree told her family and pastor that she was sorry for disappointing them.

The victim's family listened silently as Rountree addressed them. The Robertsons have returned to Norfolk from their home in Georgia for the trials

and sentencing hearings of each of the defendants who have faced the court so far.

"I do think about your son," Rountree said. "If I could, I would take that day back - not just that day but the day I affiliated myself with a gang. It's brought me nothing but trauma."

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle.washington@pilotonline.com