Hampton, Virginia

From the Hampton Daily Press of May 11, 2007

Shooting ruled as self-defense

The shooter still faces jail time for possession of a handgun by a felon.

A murder charge against a 22-year-old Norfolk man accused of killing a Hampton man in a 7-Eleven parking lot in January 2006 was dropped Thursday after prosecutors determined the fatal shooting was justified.

Donnell Lyscell Taylor also was cleared of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. The charges were dropped just before Taylor's trial was to begin in Hampton Circuit Court.

Taylor was convicted of one count of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, however. He faces between two and five years in prison when he is sentenced on July 16.

The fatal shooting occurred Jan. 29 in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven on the corner of Mercury Boulevard and Cunningham Drive.

Taylor shot 23-year-old Bobby Lee Spivey after Spivey threatened to shoot the truck Taylor was riding in with another man and two women, according to court records.

The threat came after Spivey and the truck's driver, Nicholai Peter Williams, exchanged words. Williams, an airman at Langley Air Force Base, also was charged in the slaying, but the murder charge against him was dropped earlier this year.

At a court hearing in January, a witness testified that both Taylor and Williams told Spivey to move away from the truck.

A woman in the truck told prosecutors Wednesday that before the fatal shots were fired, Spivey made a gesture toward his waistband and lifted his shirt.

Taylor remains in jail while awaiting his sentencing because he faces other charges in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.