PORTSMOUTH, Va. — A jury reached a guilty verdict Wednesday afternoon in the Dec. 2020 shooting death of a 7-year-old girl in Portsmouth who was riding in her mother's car.
Avery L. Setzer, 25 was convicted of second-degree murder and three gun charges. That second-degree murder conviction was a break for Setzer, who had been indicted for first-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence.
The jury acquitted Setzer on three counts of attempted murder and three other gun charges.
Setzer was represented by Portsmouth-based attorney Nathan Chapman, who provided a brief statement to News 3 following the verdict:
"While we are certainly disappointed with the guilty findings, we respect the jury’s verdict and are pleased that they contemplated the facts and our arguments closely enough to find Mr. Setzer not guilty of first-degree murder and not guilty of 6 of the other charges he faced," Chapman said.
"We will now focus our efforts on preparing for the sentencing hearing in June," he added.
Setzer still faces decades in prison at his sentencing hearing. A date for that hearing was not listed in online court records Thursday evening.
The shooting happened on the afternoon of December 22, 2020, near Portsmouth Boulevard and Truxton Avenue. Shortly after the call, 7-year-old Mylani Everette and a man were reported as walk-in gunshot victims at a local hospital.
Everette was rushed to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, where she remained in a coma for about two days, according to the medical examiner's autopsy report.
The 7-year-old was removed from life support on the morning of December 24, 2020. Her cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head, the medical examiner said.
Setzer was one of three people charged in the shooting, but prosecutors later withdrew the charges against his two co-defendants, Trevon Avery and Antonyo J. Taylor.
In a court filing earlier this week, prosecutors said charges against Avery were dropped due to lack of evidence, and the investigation into his role in the killing continues.
Taylor's state-level charges were dropped to allow federal prosecutors to handle his case, the filing said.
Longtime Hampton Roads attorneys Michael Rosenberg and Barrett Richardson, who served as special prosecutors in the case, declined to comment when reached by News 3.
Setzer remains behind bars at the Portsmouth City Jail, where he's been held without bail since his arrest on December 27, 2020.
