Fareed Nelson Luckett, 44, was sentenced in Norfolk Circuit Court to five years in prison for the manslaughter of 37-year-old Calvin Anthony Durham Jr. after Luckett shot Durham during an altercation at a barbershop.
Court records show that on the afternoon of June 4, 2021, Durham entered the Kappatal Cuts on Brambleton Avenue and asked to speak to Luckett.
Video surveillance footage shown in court from the inside of the shop showed Durham then starting a fistfight with Luckett and others in the barbershop intervening to break up the fight. After Durham and Luckett were separated and had a moment to cool off outside, both men reentered the shop.
A few minutes later, court records say Durham walked past Luckett out the front door of the shop. When Durham reentered the shop shortly after, Luckett initiated another fight with Durham, jumping on Durham and punching him several times.
The video footage showed that Durham had nothing in his hands when he reentered the shop, and he did not look at or speak to Luckett before the second altercation, court records show.
During this second fight, Luckett, while on top of Durham in a wrestling hold, pulled a firearm, then Durham pulled a firearm, and then the two shot one another. According to Luckett’s testimony at trial, he took the firearm from Durham’s person and shot him with it.
Luckett admitted to shooting Durham when Norfolk police arrived at the barbershop, but he claimed he did so in self-defense. Emergency responders transported Nelson Luckett and Durham to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where Durham was pronounced dead, and Luckett was treated for his injuries.
Luckett was arrested on June 9, 2021, and charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of murder.
On July 14, 2023, a Norfolk jury found Luckett guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser-included offense of second-degree murder, and of the use of a firearm.
On Friday, Judge Jerrauld C. Jones sentenced Luckett to nine years in prison, with four years suspended on the conditions that Luckett complete five years of uniform good behavior and two years of supervised probation.
“The law allows people to kill in self-defense only when they face immediate and deadly violence. Mr. Nelson Luckett may have thought he had the right to kill, but he was wrong,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “When Mr. Nelson Luckett killed Mr. Durham, he committed a criminal homicide, and that is why the jury convicted him. Otherwise, any person could appoint himself judge, jury, and executioner. Mr. Durham did not have to die that day, and I grieve with his family. Mr. Nelson Luckett must serve his sentence.”
