麻花视频

The facts behind a tragic case being wielded by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in his bid for re-election appear to be misleading at best.

For close to two months, Miyares has campaigned on the 2023 death of Lindsey Braun, a nurse practitioner who was struck by a car while backing out of her driveway in South Richmond.

Miyares has spotlighted the driver, Tabias McClain, as having been released early because of policies authored by Virginia Democrats in 2020. One reform in particular, enhanced earned sentence credits, allowed for some well-behaved prisoners to be released sooner. McClain, Miyares said, was one of those recipients.

But a review of state laws and sentencing records related to the case found that McClain should聽not have qualified for the program.

McClain, 26, was convicted of malicious wounding with a firearm when he was 17 years old.听Malicious wounding, like murder and kidnapping offenses, .听

After publication on Wednesday, the Attorney General's office shared an internal document from the Department of Corrections showing McClain was given 28 days of good time under the program. It's unclear if that decision violated state law聽鈥� in 2023, the聽聽ruled that individuals with disqualifying offenses were ineligible for the credits.

The Virginia Department of Corrections maintains that he was eligible because "his DOC term did not include the Malicious Wounding offense." However, a transfer order in McClain's case clearly lists the malicious wounding offense as an聽offense for which he was sentenced to serve time within the prison system.

McClain's release聽鈥� after serving 82% of his sentence聽鈥� aligns with Virginia鈥檚 longstanding earned sentence credit programs enabled in 1995 under Republican Gov. George Allen. Under those policies, a well-behaved prisoner could shave off around 17% percent of their sentence, at a rate of 4.5 days per month.

In addition to his conviction not qualifying for the enhanced credits, sentencing orders in his case indicate that McClain would have been released in February 2023聽鈥� five months before the crash聽鈥� even with no credits applied for good time, enhanced or regular.

On July 2, Miyares held a press conference where Braun鈥檚 mother, Mindy Applewhite, spoke to her grief and thanked the Attorney General鈥檚 office for being the only ones to listen to their family. Later in the press conference, Miyares implored Democrats to turn back on what he called the 鈥淣ortham early release program鈥� and to listen to victims, taking no questions.

In the weeks that followed, his campaign cut an ad featuring an interview with Applewhite, which is running presently as the campaign heads toward Election Day.

Local defense attorney Betty Layne DesPortes,聽who reviewed McClain鈥檚 sentencing orders, said McClain could not have benefited from the enhanced earned sentence credits. DesPortes guessed that Miyares鈥� office picked a parent who was willing to speak on camera.

鈥淯sing a family's tragedy for political purposes is troubling. Doing it on false facts is pathetic,鈥� said DesPortes.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Miyares鈥� office, Shaun Kenney, deferred questions about McClain to the Department of Corrections, who prepared names of enhanced earned sentence credit recipients for the Attorney General鈥檚 office.

The Department of Corrections has not publicly released those names. Last week, a records officer for the Department of Corrections said that qualification for earned sentence credits is a protected record. In response to a records request seeking a list of recipient names, the department said that the records 鈥渄o not exist.鈥�

The Times-Dispatch spoke by phone with Keith and Mindy Applewhite. The family originally did a which describes Mindy Applewhite's frustration with probation officers managing McClain.

The family felt McClain should have been re-incarcerated due to an alleged probation violation after his release, when his car was stopped for having improper tags and officers found a lottery ticket with cocaine in his car, according to McClain鈥檚 defense lawyer.

Keith Applewhite, a former gang detective, said the family were told by the Attorney General鈥檚 office that McClain was released under reforms passed in 2020. The family still trusts that Miyares鈥� office has it right. Keith Applewhite said that Mindy 鈥渘ever would have done the ad if it wasn鈥檛 true.鈥�

Keith Applewhite said they chose to speak up in order to honor their daughter. 鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 lost a child, you won鈥檛 understand. It feels like having your heart torn apart,鈥� he said.

Keith Applewhite said protecting future parents from the suffering they endured remains their focus. To that end, Keith said he and Mindy have come to terms with McClain. The family agreed to a plea deal in which McClain agreed to serve 5 years for involuntary manslaughter. At his sentencing, McClain apologized to the family, Keith said.

鈥淲e're OK with Tabias. He's young, he doesn't have his full brain cells, he wasn鈥檛 thinking, he ended up taking a life,鈥� said Keith Applewhite.听

After the crash, Lindsey was transported to VCU Medical Center, where she worked. Keith Applewhite said hundreds of staffers lined the hallway for an honor walk as her body was transported for organ donation.

鈥淓verybody lined up as we took her body to the operating room,鈥� said Keith Applewhite. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the impact she had in the short time she was here. That鈥檚 the reason why we did what we did. We don鈥檛 want this happening to another family.鈥�