Felon hugs prosecuter

By Linda Cicoira

Tanisha Monique Jackson overcame an obstacle Monday in her struggle for a better life when she was given a suspended sentence for a crime that seemed to be the answer to a scary and impossible situation.

The 46-year-old community college student studying early childhood care and working at a poultry plant was so thankful for the Northampton Circuit Court decision that she not only hugged her lawyer and profusely thanked the judge, she also walked across the courtroom to embrace Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Vincent deLalla.

That hasn’t been seen in the court before. But the whole series of events was unusual.

Jackson, of Birdsnest Drive in Birdsnest, went out to feed her pit bulls in January of 2023, and one of them became aggressive and growled at her. The dog got off the chain and chased her back into the house. The next thing she heard was her chihuahua “screaming and hollering.”

“I went to the door, and my pit bull had the little dog by the neck,” she said.

Jackson had logs for a woodstove handy and began throwing them at the pit so it would drop the smaller animal, but nothing worked. She called the sheriff’s office and animal control for help and finally dialed her fiancé for advice. It was then that she learned he had a gun stashed away. He disclosed its location, telling her to get it and shoot the pit bull.

“I was scared. I’ve never experienced anything like that before,” she testified.

She didn’t know how to use the weapon and missed twice, finally hitting the pit bull on the fourth try. The dog dropped the chihuahua and ran to his dog house. But it was too late. The little dog was dead. And in the end, both dogs passed away.

All that being bad enough, Jackson was a felon from a robbery conviction that occurred when she was in her 20s in Hampton. A man she had just met stole money from her handbag while she was in the bathroom. Jackson said she took his car keys while demanding her money back, and she wound up being the one convicted.

It is illegal for a felon to possess a gun.

“I have made some mistakes in the past,” she admitted, saying she once found a credit card and used it. So, she had more convictions on her record.

The prosecutor asked for active time.

“This is very different than the normal possession case,” Defense lawyer Tucker Watson said. “It was a flash decision … She panicked … She made the right decision. She called 9-1-1.”

On top of all that, Jackson was diagnosed after the incident occurred with breast cancer and had to endure a double mastectomy and treatments. She is cancer-free now, but her reconstruction surgery won’t be completed until August.

“The light bulb went off about 2020, and she’s been trying to get herself straight ever since,” Watson said. “She is sorry for what happened.”

     Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. agreed the case wasn’t typical. He gave her a suspended term with two years of supervised probation and five years of good behavior.