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Merchant gets 20 years
Published: June 28, 2011

By Bill McKelway
Media General News Service

Dennis Merchant, 21,was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for second-degree murder in the killing last may of Powhatan resident Rashad Ja’Mel Brown.

Judge James F. D’Alton Jr. followed the jury’s recommendation after the Feb. 2 trial of Dennis E. Merchant Jr., who received 18 years for second-degree murder in Brown’s stabbing death and one year each for two counts for the unlawful wounding.

The sentencing came after impassioned pleas by Merchant, who said he never intended to harm anyone, and Lolita Bell, Brown’s mother, who told the court that she lives each day mourning the death of her only son.

Merchant’s lawyer had argued at trial that his client was trying to collect a drug debt when he found himself threatened by a group of men at Brown’s home and attacked in self defense May 13, 2010. The prosecution, however, depicted Merchant as a man willing to kill over money.
For updates to this story, please visit www.powhatantoday.com.



Reader Comments


JB of USA
Jan. 2, 2012, 10:47 AM

Bob Beasley needs to run for the VA Senate!!


nun ya of school
Dec. 1, 2011, 01:35 PM

yall need to chill rashad misses yall like i do


powhatan resident of powhatan
Oct. 27, 2011, 02:35 PM

You guys missed WOW point…....where will that crack head buy his drugs


Diddles of Powhatan
Jul. 7, 2011, 02:17 PM

Wow,

  Your village called.


Wow of Powhatan
Jul. 7, 2011, 11:26 AM

Mr. G

Ha ha ha. Thanks for entertaining me again.


Darrell G
Jul. 7, 2011, 10:10 AM

Wow,

“However I was being a smart a** to you because seem to have an air of arrogance that annoys me. “

This one statement gives the sum total of your posts on this thread and really provides a window into the maturity of your opinion.

Who is adding emotion ? Who is personalizing it ? Re-read all of your posts. Look up the word Psychological Projection.

“An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or “projecting,” those same faults onto another person or object.”

Glad to help.


Wow of Powhatan
Jul. 6, 2011, 10:04 PM

Mr. G,
Apparently you have special powers too thinking I’m someone else. Other than that your just crazy. I never once stated I thought a jury member was stupid or anyone else for that matter. Nor did I call them out and attack them. You are adding emotion to my statements. I was just giving my opinion. People do this all the time without being angry or mean. However I was being a smart a** to you because seem to have an air of arrogance that annoys me.


Darrell G
Jul. 6, 2011, 09:05 PM

Wow, someone else (same person)

I never made that claim, you did.
“your not as smart as you think you are”

You use a public forum to call out and demean a jury member who not only heard the case in full, but took the time to add perspective and specificty to the article here. You attack that jury member for stating that the burden of determining guilt was removed.

You claim that our justice system stinks, while making non-sensical and irrelevant statements and throw several things out there to see what sticks.

You then make several statements that anyone who disagrees with you is stupid, or doesn’t know anything when your not even on the same page with what the jury was actually charged with deciding ? And you do all this without having the courage to use your own name ?

Now the only thing you are left with is “Apparently you think you know everything…...good luck with that”.

Hardly, unlike yourself I know I don’t know everything. I don’t assume everyone who disagrees with me is stupid or uninformed. You proved that just fine all by yourself :)


Wow of Powhatan
Jul. 6, 2011, 06:43 PM

Apparently you think you know everything…...good luck with that.


Darrell G
Jul. 6, 2011, 02:47 PM

Wow,

As compared to you apparently knowing all the facts of the case with all the he said/ she said ? The point was made that they did not have to determine whether the guy killed him or not, just the intent. Tell me all knowing one, did the defense opine that Some Other Guy Did It ? NO, they claimed self-defense and by proxy, yes, he did it.

He ADMITTED to stabbing the guy, he DIED. Which part of that do you NOT comprehend ? And I am the “thick” one ?

People want to opine about different weapons or different possibilities. Maybe there is a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The jury can only consider the evidence submitted and approved, not all the rumor mill, I heard this, I heard that, gossip bird bilge you are peddling.

You sound like some conspiracy theory nut. The judge, jury, police and prosecuter and all present were all involved in an elaborate cover-up to send one guy to jail who went looking for trouble and found it. There must have been more than one knife, because the wounds were of different sizes ? Ever carve a turkey ? Same knife, different slices. Talk about reaching.

There were guns there, ok, who got SHOT ? Nobody….again, for you slow types, that would go to intent, NOT if he did it or not. Oh, and guess what ? The defendant ADMITTED to it. Sorry to repeat, but you didn’t seem to grasp that the first 50 times.

Maybe I am not “in the know” as you seem to think you are, but only a complete idiot would argue that after someone stabs somebody and they die as a result of those injuries and the defendant clains self-defense would a jury would have to determine if the death was related or not.

The jury had to determine if it was self-defense or not, not whether the guy killed him, thus Jury members statement. Is this slow and simple enough for you ?

You and a few others seem to be stuck on stupid that a bunch of other factors were not considered and the Defendant got a raw deal. No, he went looking for trouble over a few bucks, and he found it. Get over it and move on with your life.


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