RICHMOND, Va. -- The Richmond man convicted of leaving his friend to die in the Rappahannock River after crashing his family's boat while drunk is trying to get out of prison early.
Rand Hooper's lawyer Craig Cooley submitted a motion last week requesting a reduction of Hooper's six-year sentence.
That was the punishment a judge handed down in May after a jury convicted Hopper of aggravated involuntary manslaughter and not stopping at the scene of an accident.
Hooper, 35, was just transferred to the Virginia Department of Corrections from the Lancaster County jail on August 2nd and he is being held at St. Brides, a medium security Correctional Center in Chesapeake.
In his motion, Cooley said the boat involved in the crash that resulted in Graham McCormick's death was recently released from the Lancaster Sheriff's Office.
Cooley claimed the boat did not have nearly as much damage as the prosecution claimed it had during the trial. He also argued the boat's damage showed no indication of who was driving the boat at the time of the crash.
He re-highlighted the argument he made during the trial that there was no evidence that Rand Hooper was driving the boat at the time of the crash, therefore, he could not be held responsible for McCormick's death.
Cooley also argued that Hooper was out on bond for 40 months living a "restricted life" while awaiting trial, and there is no sentencing guideline to suggest a sentence as "harsh" as the one imposed.
"Rand continues to show zero remorse and accept responsibility for his actions by continuing to make the absurd claims that he was not driving the boat," Graham McCormick's father Burke McCormick said about the motion. "We believe the sentence he received was very light given his actions after the incident in attempting to conceal what happened."
King William County Commonwealth's Attorney Matt Kite has not filed a response to the motion yet but is working on one.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
