By Roslyn Ryan
Editor

In what was perhaps a fitting end for a tragic story, the final chapter of the Tahliek Taliaferro murder trial ended today with no clear winners.

Sentences were handed down this morning for cousins Ethan and Joey Parrish, both convicted of involuntarily manslaughter in the shooting death last year of 18-year-old Powhatan High School student Tahliek Taliaferro, and no one on either side of the controversial verdict appeared to get what they had asked for.

Not the parents of Joseph Parrish, who had publicly expressed the hope that the judge would throw out their son’s conviction on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

Not the Taliaferro family, who had said in multiple press conferences that they hoped the court would find a way to impose a stiffer sentence than the established guidelines called for.

Instead, Judge Thomas V. Warren stayed within the guidelines and sentenced Ethan Parrish to a total of 11 years. Joseph Parrish received a total of 16 years.
Both were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in April, nine months after an argument at a local ice cream store ended with Taliaferro’s death.

The two had admitted to spending a day drinking and doing drugs before the chance meeting with Taliaferro and his friends near the Sheetz in Flat Rock.  After a brief altercation, the two groups apparently made arrangements to fight and headed down Dorsett Road. Taliaferro was killed when his car drove past the Parrishes’ vehicle and Ethan Parrish opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.
Taliaferro was shot in the head, and died at the scene.

Stephanie Reynolds, who had been driving the Parrishes’ vehicle and fled the scene with them, was released with a suspended sentence last week after pleading guilty to a reduced charge.
Before the sentences were handed down, those in the courtroom witnessed the emotional testimony of Taliaferro’s mother, Kaa Caputo, and Carolyn Jackson, the mother of then 15-year-old Courtney Jones, the teen who had been critically injured in the shooting.

Responding to a question about the devastation her son’s death has caused her family, Caputo broke down sobbing on the stand.
“In the back of my mind I try to deny [he’s gone],” said Caputo. “Like he’s away.”

Before that, Jackson had described her son Courtney as being angry and withdrawn since the June 14, 2008 shooting. “I’m seeing a different child than I’ve raised for 16 years,” said Jackson, adding “I don’t even know him now.”

Despite defense attorney Ted Bruns’ assertion that Ethan Parrish—who admitted to pulling the trigger but said during testimony that he’d never meant to hit Taliaferro or Jones—had been caught in the middle of a dispute between his cousin and Taliaferro’s friends, Warren refused his request for leniency.

“This is not the worst record in the world, I would agree with that,” he said, referring to the elder Parrish’s history of traffic violations and DUIs. “But it is worse than most…these are not the things that responsible people do.”

Warren reserved his harshest words for Joseph Parrish, a juvenile at the time of the shooting. Shortly after denying a motion to set aside Parrish’s conviction, Warren handed down a sentence of 16 years.
“This happened largely because of you,” he said to Parrish. “You were the one who knew everybody; you were the one who was yammering away.

“I don’t believe [Ethan] would have done anything if it weren’t for you.”

For a full report on the courtroom proceedings, please see next week’s Powhatan Today.