Former carjacker to serve seven years for other crimes

By Linda Cicoira

A young Chincoteague resident was given seven active years to serve in prison Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court for firing a 45-caliber handgun and causing a projectile to strike the windshield of a car that was pursuing him and a friend last summer.

Twenty-two-year-old Debreon Lamont Tankard, of Cathell Street, was a passenger in a car driven by 23-year-old Ashlyn Elizabeth Mace, of Market Street in Onancock, when the incident occurred last July.

“I was minding my own business,” Tankard told Retired Judge W. Revell Lewis III. “The firearm was given to me to protect myself. They were telling me that he had a firearm. I understand what I did was wrong. But it was more of a self-defense” move and being at “the wrong place at the wrong time. I had two jobs and was taking care of my daughter,” he added.

     Tankard previously pleaded guilty to three felony charges in the incident on the southbound turn lane of Lankford Highway near Wendy’s in Onley.

According to testimony, the Tankard and Mace were fleeing the north end of Four Corner Plaza in Onley, after Tankard and George Wharton, of Accomac, had a fistfight that started when Wharton made comments to Mace, who didn’t know him. Wharton did not show up for the trial.

Mace told police that she was afraid when Wharton pursued them. A friend testified that when they drove away, he heard Wharton say he would settle things. Wharton got something from the trunk of his car and sped after them. The witness said he called his friends and warned them that he thought Wharton had a gun.

     Mace told police that she recently bought the pistol. She said her driver’s side window would not come down and she couldn’t shoot a warning out the window behind her. So, she gave the gun to Tankard, not knowing that he was a felon, and told him to shoot. Wharton had pulled up behind them in the turn lane.

      After Tankard fired the gun, he and Mace fled the backroads to Grangeville near Wachapreague Road, where the firearm was thrown near some chicken houses.

      Accomack investigators looked for Mace’s car, the weapon, a gun receipt, and other items that came with the weapon. They never found the gun. But they did uncover purchase information for it at Tankard’s home. The shell casing matched the ammo also found there. Mace’s car was left in Exmore that night.

An Onley officer found Wharton and his car. He said Wharton’s face was bloody from glass striking him when the windshield was hit. Wharton was taken to the nearby hospital for treatment. He was not seriously injured.

     Tankard could have been sentenced to a maximum of 29 years in prison. He was given a five-year suspended term for shooting at the vehicle, 10 years with nine suspended for shooting from a car, and five mandatory years for being a felon in possession of a gun. Another year was added for a probation violation.

      Upon release, he will be on good behavior for 10 years and supervised probation for five years. He was also ordered not to be involved in gang activity. The judge said he would request that Tankard be held in a therapeutic community of prison for health issues.

     In 2019, when Tankard was a juvenile, he carjacked a county supervisor’s car and stole a school bus.