Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell told a judge last week that there were two different pictures of Traer Tisdale painted during his sentencing hearing — one of a cold-blooded killer and the other of a man with a good heart who made a mistake.
“Here you have two grieving families, one who portrays their loved one as someone they believe is a good person,” Bell said. “But here is another family who will never ever get an opportunity to hold their child’s hand, to see her smile, never have an opportunity to see her mother her four children.”
He added: “You can have a good heart, you can be a good person, but there are consequences to bad behavior.”
Bell asked Hampton Circuit Judge Wilford Taylor Jr. to turn to page eight of Tisdale’s presentence report, a report that details the background of a defendant. Bell pointed out that Tisdale has two tattoos: one on his left forearm with the words “Fear God,” and another on his right forearm with the word “Pimp.”
Taylor sentenced the 33-year-old Tisdale in the Nov. 27, 2012 shooting death of LaKeia Griffin. Tisdale shot Griffin, 29, to death in front of her four daughters while she was sitting inside her car on Mason Street.
“And that’s what we were dealing with that day,” Bell said. “How do we know that he took on a mindset of a pimp? Because he told her, ‘I’m supposed to be the only [expletive] in your life.’ If I can’t have you I’m gonna take you out, and that’s what we saw. It’s a tale of two cities.”
Griffin’s children, who are now being raised by her mother, were ages 12, 10, 8 and 5 at the time of their mother’s killing. Tisdale was convicted of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a felon and shooting into an occupied vehicle.
In the end, Taylor sentenced Tisdale to life plus six years in prison.
Fighting domestic violence
William and Mary’s law school said this month that it has received a $250,000 grant to expand its Domestic Violence Clinic.
The grant, from the U.S. Justice Department’s “Office of Violence Against Women,” will allow the clinic to represent more clients and expand efforts to train future lawyers in representing victims of domestic violence, the school said.
“This grant will allow more law students to gain first-hand experience while helping those who otherwise could be lost in the system,” Darryl Cunningham, a senior attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia, said in a press release. “It is a fantastic opportunity.”
Cunningham serves as director of both the Domestic Violence Clinic and the school’s Family Law Clinic.
The award “will enhance the ability of victims of domestic violence to live independently of their abusers through direct legal representation and outreach and education,” added Patricia E. Roberts, a clinical professor of law and the law school’s director of clinical programs.
“It will also aid us in training future attorneys in the complexities of direct representation to victims of domestic violence,” Roberts said, saying the grant “will help provide safety and security to the most vulnerable members of local communities.”
The clinic will be partnering with more organizations, including the school’s Family Law Clinic, the Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia, and Avalon, A Center for Women and Children.
“We are excited about this opportunity to assist abuse victims in a much larger way,” Cunningham said, saying the grant will help victims of domestic violence get more legal help, more emotional and physical support, and “access to a wider array of resources.”
Peter Dujardin and Ashley K. Speed cover courts and crime for the Daily Press. Dujardin can be reached by phone at 757-247-4749, and Speed can be reached by phone at 757-247-4778.