Accomack County Man Found Guilty

VA SHORE: After being shot five times, victim was told, 'I might as well finish you off'

Written by
Nancy Drury Duncan
Staff Writer

ACCOMAC — An Accomack County man was found guilty of malicious maiming and a firearms charge after shooting an acquaintance five times in a 2 a.m. dispute over marijuana.

Anthony Wise, 24, of Melfa will be sentenced after a background report is completed. He claimed self-defense in the shooting.

“The defendant fired five times,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Gary Agar. “No other gun was produced.

There is no evidence of self defense.”


The victim, Sedric Dennis, said he was a front seat passenger in a car with two other men. The men were parked in a driveway facing the road in Rolling Acres, near Parksley.


“We were all drinking moonshine from a jug,” Dennis said.


He testified that he had an altercation with Wise earlier in the day while they were together celebrating a birthday. Dennis said Wise accused him of taking marijuana that belonged to him.


Dennis said he denied taking it. Wise seemed to accept that and said no more about it, until later.


“He (Wise) drove into Rolling Acres and got out and walked over to our vehicle,” Dennis said. Wise walked to the driver’s side and kept asking him for the missing marijuana.


Then Wise pulled out his gun pointed it in the window and shot Dennis five times.
“I was hollering,” he said. “I exited the vehicle and tried to run, but I fell because my legs gave out.”


He said Wise ran over to him and said “I might as well finish you off.”


Dennis said Wise pulled the trigger, “but it didn’t go off.”


He said the shooter got into his car and left and he asked the other men to call an ambulance, which they did.

He said he told them instead to take him to Royal Farms.


They met the ambulance there and he was transported to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital. From there, Dennis said, he was flown by Nightingale Air Ambulance to Norfolk Sentara Hospital.


Accomack County Investigator Earl Drummond read aloud a statement from Anthony Wise, who said Dennis, the victim, brought out a big, black handgun.


“I thought it was him or me,” he told Drummond. “I was scared. I Ann’s never shot nobody.”


“It was a self-defense issue,” defense attorney Thomas Northam told the court.


“He approached the vehicle and had a pistol,” said Lewis in finding him guilty.

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