Man charged with assault of officers after learning of sister’s death granted bond
Published 9:10 pm Friday, September 2, 2022
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A man facing charges of assaulting two Suffolk Police officers as they were setting up a crime scene after he learned his sister had been killed earlier this week was granted bond Thursday in Suffolk Circuit Court.
Kyvonne Xazzic Beamon had been held in the Western Tidewater Regional Jail after being arrested Aug. 28 at the scene of the death of his sister, Delyna Hall, 24, at a home in the 1000 block of Nansemond Parkway, near the 7-Eleven on the corner with Portsmouth Boulevard.
Beamon also faces two charges of crossing police barricades and individual charges of being drunk in public, disorderly conduct and obstructing justice or resisting arrest without force.
Suffolk Circuit Court Judge Carl Eason Jr., however, granted Beamon a $10,000 bond with surety, which was met with applause from members of his family and others in the courtroom even before Eason had finished outlining the bond’s terms.
Eason said Beamon’s alleged conduct “doesn’t go to the level” of denying bond. He also said he felt better about granting bond knowing that a suspect in Hall’s death was in jail.
John Dontrel Harris, 31, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with second-degree murder, armed burglary, malicious wounding, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and maliciously shooting or stabbing someone with the intent to kill in connection with Hall’s death.
The Suffolk 911 Center received a call at 4:39 a.m. Sunday about shots fired inside the residence, with officers finding Hall, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Public defenders representing Beamon asked for bond to allow him to attend his sister’s visitation Friday and her funeral service Saturday, adding he was not a flight risk with numerous family members in the area and was not a danger to himself or the community. They also said Beamon had not had any new charges against him since 2009 and noted he rushed to the residence after getting a call saying his sister had been killed and was attempting to reach her.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Vaughn Breedlove noted that Hall was the victim of multiple gunshot wounds, and that Harris had been charged in connection to her death.
Breedlove said police were setting a perimeter and deploying yellow police tape when Beamon came through it, making contact and pushing one officer.
Breedlove, who said he “can’t express enough” his condolences to Hall’s family as he argued against bond, said Beamon reached a second officer who tried to stop him, but Beamon hit that officer “with a closed fist.”
Public defender Elisabeth Culpepper said Beamon had “unexplainable grief” as he learned his sister had been shot and killed.
“The family doesn’t want their condolences,” Culpepper said. “They want their son back.”
Prosecutors want peace in the community, Breedlove said, but “the Commonwealth also would like proper situations for (investigations) to occur,” and added officers were trying to preserve the scene to aid in the investigation into Hall’s death.
“The defendant’s conduct is what causes us to be here today,” Breedlove said.
Breedlove said the emotional and subjective aspects of the case needed to be set aside, and that Beamon did have a failure to appear charge on his record. He said the subjective side would say, let Beamon have bond, but looking at the total package, Beamon “is not a good candidate for bond.”
“He struck two police officers,” Breedlove said, adding that “the charges are serious in nature and represent danger.”
Public defender Jim Grandfield said Beamon simply wanted to get to his sister and invoked tennis great John McEnroe’s line, “you cannot be serious,” to express how he felt about Beamon being denied bond first by a magistrate and then in Suffolk General District Court.
“This case, the denial of bail, shocks the conscience,” Grandfield said.
He said prosecutors also showed a lack of empathy for the family in Hall’s death.
“The only thing I didn’t hear was thoughts and prayers,” Grandfield said. He said they should have expected Beamon to react in the manner he did when he learned what happened to his sister.
“Are they surprised that a young man who got that call reacted the way he did,” Grandfield said in arguing the hearing was about bail, not about trying the charges against Beamon.
Eason, in granting bail, said “the hearing today is, is he a danger to the community?”
In setting his bail, Eason said he must stay at the residence provided to the court by his public defenders and said Beamon would have a daytime curfew to allow him to continue working at his third-shift job.
The case was remanded back to Suffolk General District Court for an Oct. 25 hearing.