Woman sentenced for beating elderly Chincoteaguer

An Exmore woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court for maliciously wounding an elderly Chincoteague motel owner last July.

All but two years of the term was suspended for 40-year-old Rosanna Lynette Means, of Bayside Road. Initially, she was also charged with strangulation and robbery. Those charges were not prosecuted in exchange for her guilty plea to the wounding count.

The victim, 78-year-old Ann Stubbs, told authorities she notified her son and then went outside with a flashlight to see what was going on after hearing a commotion outside her business. She said she didn’t want her patrons to be disturbed.

Means was outside and told Stubbs she lost her child at the carnival grounds. When Stubbs asked her why she was at the motel, Assistant Commonwealth Attorney William Fox said, “The defendant grabbed her flashlight and started hitting her with it … knocking her backward,” causing Stubbs to fall to the ground. The victim’s nose was busted and she was hit in the eye.

Stubbs told police Means then hit her in the chest with the flashlight. The victim said she kept telling the defendant to leave. A man with Means urged her to get in his truck. When Stubbs’ son arrived, he was strangled by another person, Fox said. Meanwhile, Means “just kept hitting” Stubbs “with her fist.” Fox said she told Stubbs, “No one shines a flashlight at me.”

Means has been in the Accomack Jail since just after the incidents occurred. She took the witness stand Thursday and read from a prepared statement. “I am deeply, deeply sorry for everything that happened. If I could take back everything back, I would. I was acting in protective mode.”

Means said she had taken six or seven shots of “Jim Beam,” which was not typical for her. She argued with her fiancé and was walking with her son when she arrived at the hotel. “Things got out of control,” she said.  At one point, she thought Stubbs was going after her son. “I’m very sorry for any problems that I caused for you and your family … Mentally, this has been the hardest thing I have had to go through in my life” mostly because she has been away from her three children for the first time.

Fox said the victim believes the injury to her eye and shoulder balance are permanent. “We’re lucky that this didn’t go even further. Lucky, that Mrs. Stubbs is very resilient. This case is alarming, (and) scary at the height of tourist season. Great concern here,” Fox added.