Testimony points at jealousy in Amherst teen’s death

By Chris Dumond

Published: August 5, 2008

AMHERST — Jealousy over a 17-year-old girl may have escalated into the slaying of a 19-year-old Naola man this spring.

According to testimony Tuesday in Amherst County General District Court, that jealousy was what motivated Timothy Wright Jr. to gun down Justin Baumgardner the evening of May 3 as Baumgardner drove down Virginia 130.

Justin Davis, 25, the son of an Amherst County deputy, has been charged as an accessory in the slaying. He testified against Wright on Tuesday and said Wright stole his pistol, which prosecutors believe was used to shoot Baumgardner.

Davis also testified that while he was behind the wheel when he and Wright pulled alongside Baumgardner in the shooting, he was afraid for his life.

After Tuesday’s preliminary hearing, Judge Harold Black ruled there was enough evidence to send Wright’s felony charges — first-degree murder, shooting an occupied vehicle, shooting from a vehicle and use of a firearm in commission of a felony — to the next meeting of the Amherst County grand jury.

Wright, 21, of Amherst, had been charged with felony murder, but before the hearing started the charge was upgraded to first-degree murder by Rockingham County Commonwealth’s Attorney Marsha Garst. She has been appointed to handle the case to avoid a conflict of interest between the sheriff’s office and the Amherst County commonwealth’s attorney office.

The move to a first-degree murder charge increases the minimum penalty of a conviction from five years to 20 years, and the maximum penalty from 40 years to life.

Garst also dropped charges against Wright that he stole Davis’ pistol, that he abducted Davis and that he used a gun in the commission of the abduction.

Black also ruled there was enough evidence to send Davis’ case to the grand jury. Davis, who is charged as an accessory to the murder, waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

The 17-year-old girl, Nicole Turpin, also testified at the hearing. She said she started seeing Wright in April, shortly after she and Baumgardner ended a romantic relationship.

In spite of that, Turpin said she agreed to meet Baumgardner at Monacan Park in the southwest end of the county on May 3 around 7 p.m.

Before she did, however, she testified she either called or sent a text message to Wright telling him she was going to meet Baumgardner.

While they were at the park, she testified, she saw Wright drive by in his truck with Davis. The two men left without stopping, but returned. This time, she testified, Wright pulled in behind Baumgardner’s truck, got out and confronted the man.

“He said, ‘You need to leave her the (expletive) alone or I’ll kill you,’” Turpin testified.

During the confrontation, she said, she saw Davis in the truck playing with a pistol.

Turpin said she suspected Wright had hurt Baumgardner when Baumgardner did not call her later that night. She also testified that after Wright was arrested he sent her a message from jail saying Davis was responsible and had set him up.

Davis testified he was a friend of Wright’s and had been spending every other day with him at the time of Baumgardner’s slaying.

He told the court that he thought he and Wright were going to cruise around the county the evening of May 3 when Wright pulled into Monacan Park and they saw Baumgardner and Turpin together.

“He said, ‘What the hell are they doing together?’” Davis testified, adding that Wright told him he was sick of seeing Baumgardner around.

After leaving the park once, he said, they returned. This time, Wright pulled behind Baumgardner’s truck, blocking him in. Davis said he didn’t want to get involved in Wright’s business, but eventually got out of the truck to try to calm things down and to help Baumgardner leave.

About five minutes later, he testified, he and Wright left with Wright driving erratically and too fast. When they got to the intersection of Monacan Park Road and Virginia 130, Wright turned left toward Naola instead of right toward Davis’ home at the Izaak Walton Park.

Davis testified they closed in on a pair of taillights ahead when Wright reached under the seat, pulled out a gun and told him to drive.

When they swapped seats, he noticed Wright had his pistol, but didn’t give any explanation as to how he got it. Davis denied he had been playing with the gun at the park earlier, as Turpin had testified.

Wright told him to speed up and pass Baumgardner, Davis testified. When he did, he heard two shots and saw Baumgardner’s truck veer off to the right.

“That’s when I feared for my life,” he said.

Davis said Wright, a Marine and an Iraq war veteran, had bragged about “killing women and children and raping them,” and told him “dead witnesses don’t talk,” while he was driving the truck away from the shooting scene.

Baumgardner was found shot to death in the driveway of 3465 Elon Road the morning of May 4. Investigators said Baumgardner had no connection to the address.

Davis testified that he didn’t mention anything about the incident until May 5, when he told his father, Deputy Steve Davis, that his pistol had been stolen.

Earnest Turner, an Amherst County inmate serving time for driving suspended, testified Wright tried to hire him to kill Davis just a few hours after being jailed. Garst, the prosecutor, showed the court a map she said Wright had drawn showing directions to Davis’ home at the Walton campground.

“He said (Baumgardner) had no business messing with his girlfriend,” Turner testified.

Turner said Wright’s story changed frequently.

First Wright would tell him Davis was responsible and was setting him up. Then he’d say he was only shooting at Baumgardner’s car and that his killing was an accident, he testified.

Both men are jailed without bond. Wright is held at the Amherst jail while Davis has been held in Lynchburg.

The charges could be heard by a grand jury on Aug. 13 or Oct. 14.