Henrico County

4906 Chapman Ln.

Gunshot

Argument

Man is guilty in shotgun slaying / He originally said Henrico housemate’s death was accident
By Bill Mckelway
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Friday,February 20, 2009

The shotgun death last summer of a 20-year-old Henrico County man resulted in a murder conviction last night of a housemate who first told police the shooting was accidental.
Almost four hours of jury deliberation and a two-day trial ended with convictions of second-degree murder and two gun charges against Don Patrick Pfeifer, 35.

“We never believed it was accidental. My son was just starting to get his life together. He was the light of our lives,” said Todd Avery Sr., who sat through the trial in Henrico County Circuit Court with nearly a dozen family members.

The family wept and clutched hands when the verdicts came but seemed stunned when the jury returned 30 minutes later to recommend a total sentence of nine years on convictions that carried a maximum 48 years in prison.

The judge may not sentence Pfeifer to anything longer than what the jury recommends.

Pfeifer, who shared a small home in the 4000 block of Williamsburg Road with Todd Allen Avery II, will be formally sentenced May 19.

He was taken from the courtroom last night in handcuffs. He had been free on bond since his arrest July 7.

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Avery was killed in a bizarre incident in which the victim allegedly held the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth as Pfeifer, according to one witness, pulled the trigger.

But testimony shifted over time, with Pfeifer at first telling police he had no direct role in the shooting during a night of drinking July 3.

“It shot a friend of mine in the head and he is now dead,” Pfeifer, referring to the weapon, said in a 911 call as he ordered friends from the home. He told police he would be waiting for them with his hands held high in the air.

“He’s on my floor bleeding right now,” Pfeifer said of Avery in the 911 call.

After hours of questioning by Henrico Detectives Coby Kelley and Joseph Schihl - portions of which were played for the jury - Pfeifer gradually changed his story, acknowledging that he was trying “to teach [ Avery] a lesson” because the young man had unloaded a round of buckshot at a car.

* * * *

Expecting police to come to the house, Avery apparently told Pfeifer that he would take responsibility for the shooting. Pfeifer had reloaded the weapon that had no stock and ordered Avery to open his mouth.

A slightly built man dwarfed by the 6-foot-2 and 250-pound Pfeifer, Avery seemed to play along with what he thought was a game, gliding the barrel into his mouth, Pfeifer told police.

“He was smiling,” Pfeifer told detectives.

But Pfeifer, acknowledging that he cocked the rifle’s hammer, described a sort of “tug-of-war” with Avery that ended with a loud boom.

Pfeifer told police that even as Avery fell to the floor, he thought the man was kidding and told him to get up. When he saw blood he called police, he said.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul Cushman called the shooting a reckless, malicious act that destroyed a young life.

Defense lawyer James Bullard said he couldn’t account for Pfeifer’s changing story but said the shooting was an act of stupidity that was accidental.