Sentenced to prison at age 16 for burglaries committed as a teen-ager, Andre Griffin, 32, has already spent 12 years — more than a third of his life — behind bars. And after being found guilty of robbery, last week, he may well spend his next 18 years the same way.
He was on trial, last Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 30-31, in Fairfax County Circuit Court for robbing a 51-year-old pizza deliveryman, May 4, in Centreville's Virginia Run community.
"He intended to steal from the victim, and he did it with violence and intimidation," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick, to the seven-man, five-woman jury hearing Griffin's case. "I ask you to find him guilty."
And that's exactly what the jury did; it then recommended that he be sentenced to 18 years in prison. Sentencing is Jan. 24. Two Centreville teens were also involved with him, but both testified against him at his trial and were not prosecuted.
Fitzpatrick described the deliveryman, a Centreville resident, as a "hardworking man" who worked nights for Pizza Hut. (Centre View is withholding his identity because he's a victim). A small, slender, slight-built man of Chinese descent, he spoke in court through a Cantonese interpreter.
He said he usually works Saturdays, 5 p.m.-midnight and, on a typical night, earns $40-$50. On May 4, he said, he only had $30-$40 on his person. He was driving his wife's car, around 11 p.m., backing up after delivering pizza to a home on Smith's Trace, when he noticed a car following him.
"All of a sudden, it went in front of me and tried to stop me," said the man. "I was trying to avoid that car, and it still hit me — he bumped into my fender. I was wondering what was going on, and I was afraid."
The car — a dark blue, 1989 Buick Century later identified as being driven by Griffin — rammed the victim's car again and, this time, sent it spinning. When it finally stopped, after striking a stop sign at the intersection of Beckford Way and Eagle Tavern Lane, the terrified deliveryman left his car and ran for help. When he did so, the Buick's occupants — who'd just struck a tree on Eagle Tavern — left their own car, got into the victim's vehicle and fled.
Meanwhile, Terry Estes, 35, of Eagle Tavern Lane, was asleep in his home when, just before 11 p.m., something woke him up. "I saw burning or smoking cars in the yard," he testified. "I thought maybe there'd been an accident. Someone was banging on our doors and windows pretty frantically."
That someone was the victim, and Estes let him inside after looking out the window and recognizing by his hat that he was a Pizza Hut deliveryman. "He was yelling that he was being robbed," said Estes. "I called 911."
However, the victim's ordeal at Griffin's hands began even earlier that evening — while he was making deliveries in another part of town. Before going to Virginia Run, he delivered pizza to the Sanderling condominiums in Centre Ridge.
After identifying in court a photo Fitzpatrick showed him of the Buick, he said, "About 30 minutes before making the Virginia Run delivery, I saw this same car at Climbing Rose Way. I saw two to three people in the car."
When Fitzpatrick asked him if anyone in the courtroom was in that car then, the victim said yes and pointed at Griffin. Defense attorney John Jacob got the victim to admit it was dark when he saw the car. Therefore, he asked, how could the victim be sure it was the same man?
"Because, earlier, it was the only car that passed me at Climbing Rose, and the parking lot of the apartment complex there was really well lit," replied the victim. "Because I'm a driver, I'm very alert to things around me — especially at that time of night."
Jacob then tried another tack. "This was a car accident," he told the victim. "Did you feel you had a duty to stop and discuss it with [the people in the other car]?"
But the victim made it clear that it was no accident — and that something, indeed, was taken from him. "I never had an accident before," he said. "I was very frightened because the car struck me twice and I saw the same car at Climbing Rose Way. [Then] when I went to ask for help, they went to my car and drove my car away."
Next, the teens involved in the incident with Griffin took the stand. Centre View is not identifying them because they're both minors but, for clarity, will call the 16-year-old "Williams" and the 14-year-old "Johnson" (not their real names). Both live in The Meadows community; the older boy attends Centreville High, and the younger one attends Liberty Middle.
On May 4, around 8:45 p.m., Williams saw Johnson and Griffin across the street from his house and joined them. Griffin then drove them all to the Centreville Square Pizza Hut, where they ate pizza in Griffin's car. Williams said they then followed the victim's car from the parking lot to the apartment complex.
"Andre said he needed to get some money," said Williams. When the victim arrived at Sanderling, said the teen, "Andre told us to get out and follow him in." He said Griffin told both boys to take the victim's money and leave. But although they followed him, said Williams, they didn't do anything else.
Williams said they then drove behind "the pizza guy" to Virginia Run, where he stopped for a delivery in a cul-de-sac. "Andre told us to get out and go get him," he said. Next, said Williams, he witnessed Griffin striking the victim's car twice with his own vehicle.
When the victim's car came to a stop, said Williams, "Andre opened up the pizza guy's car and said, 'Where'd he go?' We didn't know, so Andre told us to get into the car and said, 'We're gonna dip' — which means 'leave in a hurry,' and we took off." He said they drove to the Lee Overlook community, off Route 29 and Stone Road, and then to the Mobil gas station there.
"Andre said he was gonna report his car stolen — that way he wouldn't get blamed for what happened," said Williams. He and Johnson then headed for home on foot, but police stopped them in the Centreville Regional Library parking lot.
Johnson, who was 13 then, also testified that "Andre said he wanted to go rob the pizza man." He described the same chain of events as Williams did, saying he and the older teen were just doing what Griffin told them to. He also noted that, when the victim first got into his car in Virginia Run, "Andre drove in front of him and cut him off. Then Andre drove his [own] car into a tree, and we got into the pizza man's car and Andre drove to Lee Overlook."
The younger teen delivered further damaging testimony against Griffin, saying he had a bat in his car and they were "gonna intimidate [the victim] with it, if necessary." When Jacob asked him why he was willing to participate in the incident, the boy replied, "I wanted some money because I wasn't getting any allowance." Although Williams said police didn't charge him with a crime, Johnson said he was charged with attempted robbery and "got locked up, a month or so." Both boys said they weren't proud of their actions, that night.
Police Officer Gene Bork of the Fair Oaks District Station responded to Virginia Run after the 911 call and discovered a car, "with heavy, front-end damage," slammed against the tree on Eagle Tavern. A DMV check showed it was Griffin's. As for the victim, said Bork, he "appeared shocked and very scared."
Police Officer C.H. Coburn then located the victim's car on McCoy Road, in Lee Overlook — 75 yards from the Mobil station where Griffin was found. Said Coburn: "In the back seat, there was a baseball bat and two pizza boxes." And K-9 Officer Dave Smith testified that his dog, Luke, tracked a human scent, that night, from McCoy Road to the same Mobil station.
At the same time, police Officer Virgil Swartz also went to the Mobil station because Griffin had called from there to report his own car stolen. "When I approached Griffin, he was nervous, his hands were shaking, he wouldn't look me in the eyes," said the officer. "He said his vehicle was stolen from the Shoppers Food Warehouse parking lot." Police soon realized Griffin was lying to them and was actually the person who'd stolen the deliveryman's car in Virginia Run.
After Swartz's testimony, the prosecution rested its case. Then, after conferring with Griffin for several minutes, Jacob said he had no evidence to present on the defendant's behalf. Both attorneys presented closing arguments on Thursday, Oct. 31. After deliberating about an hour, the jury returned with a guilty verdict.
When considering Griffin's punishment, the jurors deliberated nearly 90 minutes before returning and recommending 18 years in prison. Saying "The jury has spoken," Fitzpatrick said afterward that, on Jan. 24, he'll ask Judge Gaylord Finch to impose all of that time.
"There was intimidation and violence, and [Griffin] clearly had an intent to steal," said Fitzpatrick. "[Although] he wanted the others to do his bidding for him, when push came to shove, he just took matters into his own hands. He's a dangerous guy, and I think [18 years is] an appropriate sentence."