Danville man sentenced to 25 years for 2007 shooting

Jennings Darnell Tucker sat passively as the bailiff pushed his wheelchair to the witness stand during the sentencing of a Danville man who shot Tucker in 2007.

On Thursday, Santana Lamar Wimbush was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the shooting. A jury con-victed him Sept. 29 of aggravated malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm in a public place.

“Raise your right hand,” Judge David Melesco said to Tucker. “As best you can.”

Tucker, 28, pulled a hand out of the pocket of his chocolate-brown jacket. It climbed as high as his chest and quivered while he took the oath.

Tucker said shooting in Eli’s Bar and Grill in Danville left him a paraplegic.

Tucker said that he’s also had a stroke, and for two months, he could only say one word: orange.

Michael Newman, a senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney for Danville, asked him who dressed him for court Thursday.

His nurse, Tucker said.

“Could you dress yourself?” Newman asked.

“No,” Tucker replied.

“How about going to the bathroom, what does that entail?”

“A colostomy bag. A catheter.”

Newman continued to ask about the shooting.

“Did you have a fiance or girlfriend at that time?” Newman asked.

“Fiance.”

“Are you still with her?”

“No.”

Tucker said he is seeing a counselor because of depression and takes antidepressants. He lives in a nursing home now. His birthday, on Saturday, will be the third he’s celebrated there.

He sees his two daughters every Saturday, when family brings them to visit.

Tucker finished testifying and as the bailiffs pushed him from the witness stand, Tucker’s arm bumped a folder that hung off the table of Joe Garrett, Wimbush’s defense attorney.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” Tucker said softly as he looked up.

Judge Melesco said that Wimbush’s actions were like a giant boulder falling in a lake. The ripples have affected everyone, he said.

“I don’t understand what made you leave, go out, arm yourself come back and fire two shots in a crowded bar,” Melesco said.

Newman reviewed the case briefly during the sentencing.

He said the shooting could have been a murder if an off-duty nurse had not been in the bar to treat Tucker. The two men argued, and Wimbush left, Newman said. He came back to the bar with a gun, fired one round into the ceiling, then another into Tucker’s chest.

Newman said Wimbush ran when police charged him. He remained on Danville’s Most Wanted list until June, when U.S. Marshals and Rockingham County (N.C.) sheriff’s deputies arrested him in North Carolina.

Judge Melesco agreed with Newman that the crime was way outside of the sentencing guidelines, which called for less prison time.

Before the judge gave his sentence, Wimbush addressed the court. He read a prepared statement and apologized to Tucker and his family.

“I hope one day in the future that he and his family can forgive me,” Wimbush said.

He also apologized to his mother, who is waiting for a kidney transplant.

“I’m so sorry for worrying you to death,” Wimbush said as