Man sentenced for trying to run over Chesapeake cop

CHESAPEAKE

A judge dismissed attempted-murder charges against Jamel Albritton, who was found guilty of trying to run over a police officer last year.

Albritton, 24, was sentenced to 20 years and nine months Tuesday in Chesapeake Circuit Court, with all but two years and nine months suspended. He pleaded guilty last year of hit-and-run, felony eluding police and grand larceny. He was found guilty of malicious injury of a law enforcement officer and attempted capital murder.

Judge V. Thomas Forehand Jr. dismissed the attempted-murder charge Tuesday, Albritton's attorney Richard Buyrn said after the hearing. Buyrn filed a petition earlier this year requesting the charge be removed, he said. The attempted capital-murder charge carried a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Albritton was convicted for driving a stolen 2006 Lexus and eluding police as he raced through Chesapeake at 80 mph on April 8, 2010. He stopped once, then fled before stopping again on Etheridge Manor Boulevard for Chesapeake Officer Raymond Kerr Jr. Albritton suddenly backed his vehicle toward Kerr, striking him, then took off again. Kerr suffered a chipped ankle and a laceration on his chin.