By Nancy Drury Duncan –
A 20-year-old man with a serious juvenile criminal history will spend two years in jail for felony destruction of property.
Dabreon Lamont Tankard, 20, of Onancock, was convicted in a September 2021 bench trial after pleading not guilty to the charge. His conviction resulted from an incident at a home in Accomac.
A woman testified Tankard came to her house and said he wanted to see her son. She said he appeared to be very angry. She refused to let him in or allow her son to go outside. “He was ready to fight,” she told the court. She said he cursed and threatened her. She said he punched her storm door and turned to leave. She went back inside and heard a loud noise. She said she saw Tankard running from her damaged car. She and her husband went outside and found a cinder block near her car. She said she took photos of the car and of the cinder block, which had red paint on it matching the color of the car.
Tankard was released from a juvenile detention facility two years ago after spending almost four years there. He was 14 years old but was tried as an adult when convicted of carjacking with a gun, maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle, grand larceny of a motor vehicle, and other serious felonies for a 2016 incident with two others. With weapons displayed, the three approached a car parked in Melfa. The woman inside, C. Reneta Major, a member of the Accomack County Board of Supervisors, had pulled off the road to make a phone call. They approached her and asked for cigarettes. When she had none, a shot was fired into the car with Major still inside. They took her car. The guns used were BB guns, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan at the trial. She was unharmed but shaken. Two days earlier, Tankard and another juvenile stole and vandalized a Broadwater Academy school bus.
“They let you out in 2019, before you were 21,” said Judge W. Revell Lewis III. “Then you were convicted of shoplifting in August of 2020. This last incident happened in November 2020. You pleaded not guilty; the court found you guilty.” He sentenced Tankard to five years and suspended three of those years. He ordered him to be on supervised probation for five years and to be on good behavior for 10 years.
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Daniel James Miller, 36, of Bloxom, entered into a plea agreement with the commonwealth. In exchange for his guilty plea to possession of cocaine, a felony shoplifting charge was amended to a misdemeanor. On Aug. 5, 2020, a loss prevention specialist at Walmart saw Miller picking up items and concealing them in his pants. She called police and stopped him on his way out of the store. He was searched and the stolen items were found. Also found was a vial containing cocaine. Miller admitted it was cocaine but said he picked it up in the parking lot on his way into the store. He told the officer he took the items because he “couldn’t help himself.”
Judge Lewis accepted the plea agreement, ordered a presentence investigation report, and set Miller’s sentencing for March 31. He was allowed to remain on bond.
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Crystal Marie Apgar, 42, of Pocomoke City, Md., charged with embezzlement, entered into a plea agreement with the commonwealth.
During fall 2020, Apgar embezzled money from Dixieland convenience store and gas station in New Church where she worked. A Virginia state police investigation comparing store surveillance cameras with her work schedule, voided receipts, and a daily log showed that on Oct. 31, 2020, there were two incidents where a customer paid in cash and she put the money into the register, voided the sale, then took the money from the register and put it into her pocket. There were three such incidents on Nov. 11, 2020, and five more on Nov. 14. The total amount taken was $873.97. She told the court she took the money because she was addicted to drugs. She said she has received help, is now drug-free, and has found new employment. In exchange for her plea of guilty, Apgar will serve no jail time. She was sentenced to five years with all time suspended and ordered to be on supervised probation for three years.
