Hampton, VA: Jury calls for life sentence for woman who killed boyfriend

A Hampton jury took only half an hour to convict Christine L. Burrage of first-degree murder.
July 01, 2010|By Peter Dujardin, pdujardin@dailypress | 247-4749
HAMPTON — A jury deliberated for only 40 minutes Wednesday before finding a woman guilty of first-degree murder in her boyfriend's death — then deliberated for another hour Thursday before recommending that she spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Christine L. Burrage, now 34, was found guilty of killing Damon Andre Smooth, 29, in a parking lot of the Tide Mill Shopping Center, on North Armistead Avenue, just after he got off work at a restaurant there one day in January 2009.

Commonwealth's Attorney Linda Curtis said Burrage is the first woman she can recall being convicted on a murder charge in Hampton since Elanda Williams was convicted of killing two of her children in 1989, and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Burrage shot Smooth to death with a gun he had given her for protection for her late-night work at a 7-Eleven, police said.

Just before 2 a.m. on Jan. 24, 2009, as the Tide Mill Café was closing, Smooth and Burrage left together, walking toward her car.

Witnesses testified that Burrage, standing near her open driver's-side door, opened fire across the top of the car, striking Smooth, who was standing on the passenger side of the car, in the chest. Smooth stumbled toward the back of the car and collapsed as Burrage drove away.

Within minutes, police stopped her on Kecoughtan Road.

Burrage, who took the stand Wednesday, testified that she and Smooth were arguing, beginning inside the restaurant, and that Smooth was threatening to kill her and her family.

Even after Smooth saw the gun, she said, Smooth told her that "the gun doesn't matter, I can still get you," and moved toward her with a threatening demeanor. She said she then shot Smooth in self-defense. She also described a stormy relationship with Smooth, saying there was past abuse.

But prosecution witnesses testified that they heard Burrage raising her voice in the parking lot after the two left the restaurant. They said they heard Burrage say, "You better recognize" — street slang for you better know who you're dealing with — before she fired across the top of the car. Smooth's family said he was not abusive.

Burrage had been drinking in the club, but she wasn't so drunk that she didn't know what she was doing, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Bane, one of the two prosecutors on the case.