KING WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. -- Selena Spurlock and her family walked out of the King William County Courthouse on Thursday disappointed.
“I don’t feel like I got justice at all,” Spurlock told CBS 6 after a two-day trial.
On November 14, 2020, Marcus Holman admitted in court that he shot and seriously injured his former girlfriend with a shotgun blast.
The 47-year-old testified that he was upset and angry when Spurlock wouldn’t let him inside her house after a night of drinking.
But King William Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Bondurant sided with the defense when he struck down an aggravated malicious wounding charge after the prosecution could not prove Holman intended to hurt Spurlock when he shot his shotgun two times in the air.
“He pointed it at me,” Spurlock recalled. “[His sister and her boyfriend] struggled with [the gun] trying to take it from him, but they get up there and denied that.”
Holman, who was 46 years old at the time of the shooting, told the judge there were no lights on inside the home and he couldn’t see Spurlock standing at the bathroom window when she was on the phone with police.
Holman’s defense attorney, Brent Jackson, called the shooting a heat of passion crime.
“We are no better than our evidence. It’s clear that when my client did the acts, the Commonwealth’s witnesses, as well as my client, stated he was upset, angry and less than happy when these things occurred."
Jackson’s client faced up to life in prison if convicted for aggravated malicious wounding. But Judge Bondurant convicted Holman of unlawful wounding which carries up to five years in jail.
Holman was also convicted of three additional gun charges including possession of a weapon by a felon.
The shooting changed the mother of two’s life forever.
The blast took Spurlock’s eyesight, which forced her to learn how to navigate life with her eyesight.
“[Holman] has much regret and much remorse and I think that he would like at one point in time to tell [Spurlock] I’m sorry in person,” Jackson stated.
CBS 6’s Brendan King asked Spurlock if she would want to hear an apology from Holman.
“No. No, sorry won’t change anything. Sorry won’t change the fact you almost took my life,” she responded. “Sorry won’t change the fact that I have to learn how to live all over again in a different way. Me and my kids have to adjust to that.”
Judge Bondurant set a pre-sentencing report to be scheduled on April 4 at 1 p.m.
