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Derek Stringfellow Best
HOMICIDE OCCURRED: Jan 13, 2008
| AGE: | 19 |
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| GENDER: | Male |
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| RACE: | White |
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| LOCALITY: | Chesterfield County |
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| Location of homicide: | 4700 block Junilla Lane |
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| Time of Report: | 4:30 AM |
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| Cause of death: | Gunshot |
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| Motive: | Argument |
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| Learn more about this case: (Reporting by the Richmond Times-Dispatch unless noted otherwise) | |||
Chesterfield man charged in slaying
———————————————————————————————————————— Drive in Chesterfield, was shot yesterday about 4:30 a.m. in the 4700 block of Junilla Lane in the Glenwood subdivision in Chesterfield. He was transported to CJW Medical Center (Chippenham), where he died. Best’s slaying was the first homicide of the year in Chesterfield, police said. Joseph Wayne Garrard of the 4700 block of Junilla Lane in Chesterfield was arrested and also charged with using a firearm in a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held without bond in the county jail. Police said an argument between Garrard and Best preceded the shooting. Chesterfield Sgt. Brad Badgerow said Best had gone to the house on Junilla Lane to get something of his that he thought Garrard’s daughter had. Badgerow said he is not sure what the men were arguing about. The daughter was not home at the time, he said. Best was shot just inside the house, near the foyer, Badgerow said. Man charged in slaying has felony drug record
———————————————————————————————————————— Garrard also was charged with using a firearm in the slaying and possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a felony. The latter charge stems from his Nov. 28, 1990, drug conviction. In February of that year, police seized about two ounces of marijuana from a house in which he was living in the 4700 block of Stirrup Circle, according to court records. He pleaded guilty and was given a five-year suspended prison sentence on the condition he serve 12 months in the county jail. Two years earlier, in November 1988, he was charged with the same crime, but it was reduced to misdemeanor possession of marijuana, which he pleaded guilty to in April 1989. He received a 30-day suspended jail sentence, according to court records. In that case, police seized about 15 grams of marijuana and several marijuana plants from a home in the 10700 block of Reams Road. Garrard now stands accused of fatally shooting Best about 4:30 a.m. inside Gerrard’s Glenwood subdivision home. Best died after being taken to CJW Medical Center (Chippenham). Best had gone to Garrard’s home to retrieve some small personal items of his that he believed his former 17-year-old girlfriend still had at her house. “There was a confrontation over some property issues, ...and things escalated fairly quickly,” said Chesterfield police Capt. Paige Foster. “He thought she had them, but I think he was mistaken.” His former girlfriend wasn’t at the house at the time, Foster said. “It was an unfortunate set of circumstances,” said Foster, adding that Best and the 17-year-old girl had a “troubled relationship.” “It’s a true tragedy,” he said. Garrard appeared briefly yesterday in Chesterfield General District Court via closed-circuit television from the county jail. He is being held without bond pending his next court appearance Feb. 8.
Possible drug use probed at slaying site / Chesterfield police open separate case at home of suspect in teen’s death
———————————————————————————————————————— Narcotics investigators searched the home at 4700 block of Junilla Drive on Monday, confiscating a .38-caliber gun, ammunition, three drug pipes and several medicine bottles containing such prescription drugs as Percocet, Oxycodone and Meprozine, according to a search warrant filed in Chesterfield Circuit Court. Police decided to return after Sunday’s slaying after officers discovered marijuana and drug paraphernalia inside the home while processing it as a crime scene in the homicide, according to an affidavit used to search the house. In the master bedroom, the affidavit said, police found a case containing less than a half-ounce of marijuana, marijuana seeds, smoking papers, burned blunts and other marijuana-related items that had been tucked between the mattresses of Garrard’s bed. “This is the same location that Garrard had indicated that the gun he used was kept,” a detective wrote. As a felon with a prior drug conviction, Garrard is not legally allowed to possess a firearm. In another bedroom occupied by Garrard’s daughter, police found a shoebox-style container with less than an ounce of marijuana, a smoking device and burned marijuana residue, according to the affidavit. Garrard was convicted in 1989 of misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and in 1990 of felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Police also transcribed a recorded telephone call at the Chesterfield County Jail between Garrard and his wife on Sunday afternoon. In the call, Garrard’s wife tells her husband that officers took the box containing the marijuana and drug paraphernalia that had been stuffed between their bed’s mattresses, the affidavit says. Garrard then asks whether police also took a safe, and his wife responds that they “probably didn’t even see it,” according to the affidavit. Gregory Sheldon, Garrard’s court-appointed attorney, described his client as a hard-working family man “with three kids he loves dearly.” The Garrard family is deeply distraught about what happened, Sheldon said. Garrard has worked about 12 years as a self-employed carpet and upholstery cleaner, according to court records. Garrard is a diabetic, and Sheldon suggested that some of the prescription drugs police took from the house were for legitimate ailments. Police said Best’s death was not a premeditated killing. He was shot inside the Garrard home about 4:30 a.m. after he had gone there to retrieve some small personal items of his that he believed his former girlfriend, 17, had taken. Police said they had a troubled relationship. Best was shot after a confrontation with Garrard arose over the items, but police haven’t said precisely how the shooting occurred. Garrard was charged with second-degree murder. “Without going too far into it, there were probably a series of incidents that kind of led up to what happened,” Sheldon said. “There’s a history, obviously, and I don’t think it’s a good one.” |
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Dear Anonymous of Richmond,
Thank you for your concern…yes; violence is never a solution to a problem. I cannot reveal too much here as the trial has been set for next month, but the truth began to emerge at the preliminary trial. There was no argument from my son…details of which I will provide here as a post-trial disclosure of facts. As for the time of morning, my son would have been murdered if he had gone to the parent’s house at 4:30 p.m. Ironically, the parents and my son had never once had a cross word with each other…they truly liked Derek. The daughter from whom my son broke off all relations two weeks prior to his murder, unexpectedly showed up at my house about 3:00 a.m. that morning to torment Derek…long story. Did we shoot her? No. My son told her that he was going to her parents to recover his property that she refused to return to him…items taken from him. She told him to go ahead to her parent’s house. You see, the daughter had been out all night and suddenly showed up at my house, and her mother had been up all night trying to locate her. In fact, she let him into the house and it was there Derek began expressing his concerns as to wanting to be left alone and to recover his property with the former being his primary concern. An independent witness has already testified that Derek neither argued nor displayed any form of aggressiveness…to have done so would have been a departure from both his character and normative behavior. You would have to know him.
Robert Best of Chesterfield, VA
Oct. 6, 2008 at 09:42 PM
MURDER IS NEVER THE ANSWER TO ANY PROBLEM. THERE ARE MANY LOSERS IN A CASE LIKE THIS, THE VICTIM’S FAMILY WILL NEVER GET TO SEE THER LOVED ONE AGAIN. THE DEFENDENT PROBALY WILL LOSE HIS FREEDOM AS A RESULT OF A SENSELESS ARGUEMENT, NO ONE WINS IN A CASE LIKE THIS, BUT AS FATHER OF A TEEN AGE DAUGHTER I HAVE SEEN HOW THESE KIDS PUSH THE ENVELOPE THINKING THEY ARE INVINSIBLE THIS MAN WAS AT HIS HOME 4:30 in the morning minding his business imagine some one coming to your castle that time of morning I’ve been that age before probaly pumped up by some of his friends ,yaeh man,don’t let that @#$ch take nothing from you,and f@#k her daddy too! I got your back ten minutes later there’s an unnecesary death, where are your friends, I hope I’m never put in that position. KIDS WAKE UP LIFE IS PRECIOUS AND YOU CAN’T GET IT BACK ONCE IT’S GONE SORRY TO THE PARENTS I KNOW IT’S HARD MR BEST GOD BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY I HOPE I DIDN’T OFFEND THESE KIDS AND ADULTS NEED TO KNOW THAT VIOLENCE IS NEVER THE ANSWER.
anonymous of richmond
Oct. 5, 2008 at 12:27 AM
Cristian - I haven’t a clue as to what your comment has to do with the cold-blooded murder of my son.
Robert E. Best of Chesterfield, VA
Sep. 30, 2008 at 03:03 PM
Some cases should be solved with the help of a simple drug treatment center but that costs money and officials prefer investing in guns and other inefficient ways to solve a crime.
Cristian
Sep. 30, 2008 at 01:41 PM
Garrard and his wife, who stood by him and watched the murder, will never understand the profound sense of loss and grief experienced by parents who lose a child. Derek’s death is particularly difficult to deal with in that it has no logical antecedent. A senseless death has neither rhyme nor reason thus leaving its survivors on a road to recovery that quite possibly they may never successfully negotiate.
Robert E. Best of Chesterfield
Aug. 1, 2008 at 02:34 PM
Derek was a victim of a one-man argument: Joseph Wayne Garrard.
Dwight of Virginia
Jul. 22, 2008 at 02:27 PM
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