A Hopewell judge sentenced Darrell Donnell Taylor Jr. to 17 years on an Alford plea in the killing of Richmond fire Lt. Ashley Berry.

An Alford plea lets the court enter the conviction while the defendant does not admit guilt. Both stations described Wednesday's plea that way, and both said the term is 17 years. WTVR said the judge thought it should have been longer, and that it was never settled whether Taylor was the driver or the gunman. 12 On Your Side said the 17 years sit behind a sentence that does not end until January 2028. The number and the start date are not the same fact.

A judge in Hopewell Circuit Court on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, sentenced Darrell Donnell Taylor Jr. to 17 years after an Alford plea in the killing of Richmond Fire Lt. Ashley Berry, 12 On Your Side reported. WTVR reported the same 17-year active sentence and spelled him Darrell Taylor, 34. Both stations said an Alford plea means he did not admit guilt and did accept that the evidence was enough for a conviction. WTVR said the plea was on four charges and did not name them. 12 On Your Side reported the plea and the 17 years and did not give a count. 12 On Your Side said Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Jessica Bailey told the station he is still serving a sentence in a prior case, so the 17 years do not begin until that sentence ends in January 2028. WTVR did not describe a prior sentence. WTVR said that in imposing the term, which was part of the plea, the judge said he thought it should have been more and that he hoped Taylor could be rehabilitated in prison. Neither station named the judge. 12 On Your Side said the judge offered Taylor a chance to speak and that he did not.

The shooting was on Thanksgiving night in 2019, and the stations agree on the place. 12 On Your Side said Hopewell police were called for shots fired on Sunnyside Avenue on Nov. 28, 2019, and found Berry, 33, with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to a hospital and died. WTVR said the drive-by was outside a group of townhomes on Sunnyside Avenue on Thanksgiving Day 2019, and that Berry was leaving a dinner at one of the homes. WTVR said prosecutors described Taylor as hired for a few hundred dollars to do the drive-by as part of a feud between two groups, and that Berry had nothing to do with that feud. 12 On Your Side did not describe a payment or a feud. WTVR said it was never made clear whether Taylor was the driver or the gunman, and that his defense attorney said in court that witness testimony would have indicated he was the driver. That is the defense statement WTVR reported. It is not a finding of which seat he was in. 12 On Your Side said a grand jury indicted Taylor on Aug. 8, 2023, on several charges related to the killing.

Both stations said Berry shielded her son, who was 5, and neither named him. 12 On Your Side said her father, Waverly Berry, told the station in December 2019 that she shielded the child from the bullets. WTVR said that was her last act. The child is not named here. 12 On Your Side said Chenice Brown-Johnson, a close friend, was on the phone with Berry moments before the shots. After court, Brown-Johnson told 12 On Your Side, "Today means that we get some pieces of closure," and said she forgave Taylor because "it's also who Ashley was." Waverly Berry told 12 On Your Side he had "mixed emotions" and that the day brought "a sigh of relief." He also said, "I do feel bad for the young man," and that the family and the community still have to heal. WTVR quoted him outside court hoping the family and the community will heal, and quoted Brown-Johnson calling Berry kind and full of integrity. Those are the family's and the friend's words in the stations' stories. The 17 years are the term the judge imposed. 12 On Your Side's account of a January 2028 start is the part that decides when that term actually begins. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.