Officials praise 35-year sentence

By Glenn Smith

The Post and Courier

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Prosecutors and police are hailing a 35-year prison sentence that a Lowcountry man received for trying to carjack and shoot a man outside a North Charleston restaurant in December 2007.

Circuit Judge Roger Young imposed the sentence this week after a Charleston County jury found 23-year-old Vashaun Ravenel guilty of attempted armed robbery, assault with intent to kill and pointing and presenting a firearm.

Young gave Ravenel the maximum sentence on each count and ordered that the terms be served consecutively, placing him behind bars for more than three decades.

Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said the sentence shows that the judge recognized the deficiency in South Carolina's assault with intent to kill law and required consecutive terms to reflect the gravity of the crime.

Though assault with intent to kill equates to attempted murder, the law carries only a 10-year maximum sentence, Wilson said. She and law enforcement officials have pushed lawmakers to significantly increase the penalties for the charge.

"The law gives defendants who attempt to kill the benefit of a gun misfiring or an emergency room that does great work," Wilson said. "The defendant did not deserve the benefit of the law's loophole. We're lucky this was not a murder case."

Ravenel's lawyer, Stephen Harris, said his client maintains his innocence, and an appeal already has been filed.

Ravenel was accused of trying to carjack the manager of Ryan's Steakhouse on Rivers Avenue on the night of Dec. 29, 2007.

The manager told North Charleston police he was walking to his car after closing up when a man in a ski mask approached him with a revolver.

When the manager jumped into his car, the gunman raised the revolver to the driver's side window, aimed it at the manager's head and pulled the trigger twice, police said. Both times, the gun misfired.

The gunman grabbed for the car door, but the manager hit the gas and drove away, authorities said.

Police arrested Ravenel about 20 minutes later at a nearby apartment complex after officers found him with a ski mask and a revolver in his pants.

The victim identified him as the robber.

At the time, Ravenel was on probation for a second-degree burglary conviction.

A jury on Tuesday deliberated less than a half-hour before finding him guilty.

North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt said police were "tremendously pleased" with the outcome of the trial and the sentence, which he believes is justified by the crime.