Not Guilty, Sentenced to Life: How two Virginia men were charged with officer’s 1998 murder despite lack of evidence

Mar 6, 2025 - 01:25

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Not Guilty, Sentenced to Life: How two Virginia men were charged with officer’s 1998 murder despite lack of evidence

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Twenty-seven years ago, a Waverly police officer was shot with his own gun in the woods. Days later, two men -- Ferrone Claiborne and Terrence Richardson -- were arrested and charged with his murder. Twenty-four years ago, they were sentenced to life in prison, despite a federal jury acquitting them of the murder charges. But how did this story begin?

Eight years ago, 8News began investigating why Claiborne and Richardson -- the so-called "Waverly Two"-- were still behind bars. Now, with then-president Joe Biden having commuted their sentences in January, we are looking back on how this all started.

ALL COVERAGE: Not Guilty, Sentenced to Life

Their cases began in a Sussex County court, with murder and drug charges filed against then-27-year-old Richardson and 22-year-old Claiborne by the state.

The Commonwealth's Attorney's case alleged that both men had walked into the woods behind the Waverly Village apartment complex on April 25, 1998, to make a deal for crack cocaine. Prosecutors said they were caught in the act by 25-year-old officer Allen Gibson -- who was in the woods by himself for a reason never determined -- when one of them struggled with Gibson and his gun before the gun "went off." Gibson was shot in the stomach, leaving him with a deadly injury.

The scene of Waverly officer Allen Gibson's murder in 1998. (Photo: 8News)

By all accounts in court documents, when fellow officer Rick Aldridge arrived, he said Gibson described the encounter with the suspects like this:

"One sort of medium build with short, balding hair. Real short, narrow. He described one as tall and skinny. He described one of them with hair that would resemble dreadlocks pulled back into a ponytail [sic]. He said they were both wearing dark jeans. One of them had on a white T-shirt. One of them had on an old blue baseball cap. He said that he had got in a scuffle with them and one of them got his gun. He referred to the one that had the gun as 'the skinny one.' He said that he was fighting with him and he was -- he was trying to move his hands and show me. He said, 'I tried to move the gun away from me,' and he said 'they shot me with my own gun.'" Cpl. Rick Aldridge on what officer Allen Gibson told him after he'd been shot.

Warren Sturrup, then-Waverly Police Chief, arrived soon after -- immediately trying to find the suspects and removing the gun from the scene.

However, Sturrup picked up the gun without gloves, compromising any fingerprints that may have been on it. In an interview with 8News, he recalled that he "didn't think about that at the time," adding that he hadn't wanted to leave the gun "laying around."

Warren Sturrup, former chief of the Waverly Police Department, who served in that role at the time of Officer Allen Gibson's 1998 murder. (Photo: 8News)

As they waited for a medical flight to arrive, Sturrup found his first potential suspect. When he brought that man to Gibson, the officer denied that this had been the man who shot him.

And in her handwritten account of what she'd seen, the nine-year-old witness described Gibson's shooter as follows:

"That’s when I saw the man with the 'dreads' peeking around the other end of the building. He was watching the policeman. I'm ... not sure what kind of clothes he had on, but I know he had a white shirt. He was kind of fat and he had hair on his chin." Handwritten statement by then-9-year-old Shannequia Gay on Allen Gibson's murder

Gay's full, original statement is shown below.

Shannequia Gay's original statement of what she witnessed on April 25, 1998 regarding Allen Gibson's murder. Taken from federal court documents obtained by 8News.

Two days later, officers picked up Claiborne and Richardson -- even though neither of them fit the original description.

Claiborne had short, even shaved hair, while Richardson had cornrows that ended just below the base of his neck.

Richardson, who the state charged with the murder, didn't otherwise fit Gibson's description of the shooter.

Ferrone Claiborne [left], Terrence Richardson [middle] and Allen Gibson [right]. (Photo: 8News)

The attorney who would end up representing both men in their bids to petition for their innocence to be recognized found that, gradually, the 9-year-old's description slowly changed to match that of one of the two men arrested: Richardson. He also found that the attorney's office disclosed they'd given her gifts.

Beyond that, physical evidence linking Richardson or Claiborne to the crime did not exist. In fact, whatever evidence did exist pointed away from them.

As stated before, after Sturrup mishandled Gibson's gun, no usable fingerprints could be pulled from it.

According to court documents, though the young eyewitness said she saw Gibson's shooter with blood on his shirt, the shirt Richardson was wearing at the time of the murder was tested and proved not to have any of Gibson's blood on it.

Furthermore, hair fragments found on Gibson's uniform were determined to not belong to Richardson, Claiborne or even Gibson himself -- meaning a fourth person left them there.

On the whole, Richardson and Claiborne were both eliminated by forensic examiners as those responsible for any genetic material found on Gibson's uniform.

Court documents outline interviews conducted with Richardson about the day of Gibson's murder. Throughout these interviews, Richardson maintained his version of events -- that he had been with the children of a friend he was staying with around the time Gibson would have been killed, watching cartoons.

Authorities asked Richardson what he'd been watching with these children and he reportedly outlined the cartoons they'd watched. Authorities were able to verify that these cartoons had indeed aired at the times Richardson indicated.

While polygraph technology is largely discredited in the modern day, it was considered viable at the time of the Waverly Two's court proceedings. Such tests were administered and both men passed.

Despite all of this, state prosecutors maintained that the Waverly Two were guilty.

“It was frustrating, handling the cases, because while I believed we had the right two criminal agents, the evidence as a whole was very borderline proving murder," David Chappell, the Sussex County Commonwealth's Attorney at the time of the Waverly Two's legal proceedings, previously told 8News.

It's the weakness of the case that moved prosecutors to offer Richardson and Claiborne a plea deal. Their defense attorney encouraged them to take this deal to avoid the death penalty.

“He [their attorney] said, ‘If you go to trial and you mess around and you lose, you could get the death penalty,'" Richardson told 8News during an early phone interview.

Claiborne, in a similar phone interview, added that he didn't have the funds to go forward with a trial and that this also influenced his decision.

Fearing that outcome, they took the deals in late 1999, with Richardson pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and Claiborne walking free with a misdemeanor.

At the time, still maintaining their innocence, they were just happy to walk away from murder charges without threat of the electric chair.

Ferrone Claiborne speaking with reporters outside of the Sussex County courthouse after he, per the terms of his plea deal, was allowed to walk with a misdemeanor in connection to Waverly officer Allen Gibson's death. (Photo: 8News)

"I think I've been blessed," Claiborne told reporters outside of the courthouse following his and Richardson's sentencing.

It's the same plea deals the Waverly Two call bargains to save their lives that Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) referred to in his statement responding to former President Joe Biden's decision to commute their sentences in January, shortly before he left office.

"This is despicable; a grim day for justice and for the families who trust that our system will hold the guilty accountable," Youngkin said in that statement. "Both prisoners admitted to being responsible for the brutal killing of Officer Allen Gibson in Sussex County Circuit Court. The evidence presented and the details surrounding Officer Gibson's death are deeply disturbing and tragic."

For supporters of Richardson and Claiborne, said "evidence presented" is "deeply disturbing and tragic" for a different reason: they maintain that the evidence doesn't point to the Waverly Two at all.

8News' deep dive into that evidence did uncover several holes. In addition to the evidence previously mentioned, we soon learned that several pieces of evidence were not available to Richardson and Claiborne when they made the only decision they believed would guarantee their lives.

When they took those plea deals, they didn't know that the young eyewitness had initially described a completely different man.

When they took those plea deals, they didn't know that the man she first pointed out in a photo lineup could be the same man identified by an anonymous person on a Virginia State Police answering machine.

A photo array shown to Shannequia Gay in an attempt to identify the man who shot and killed Allen Gibson. Though record of who was in the lineup has seemingly vanished, it is believed that the man in photo "2" on this page could be Leonard Newby. (Taken from federal court documents obtained by 8News.)

A photo array shown to Shannequia Gay in an attempt to identify the man who shot and killed Allen Gibson. (Taken from federal court documents obtained by 8News.)

When they took those plea deals, they didn't know that state police never once interviewed that man as a suspect.

This evidence, seemingly not made available to them, not only kept them from arguing their case even more strongly in Sussex's courts -- but it was also not able to be included in their defense when they were charged with Gibson's murder again at the federal level.

Within two years, Claiborne, who had walked out of court a free man and Richardson, who was nearly halfway through his sentence on the pleaded charges, were facing spending the lives they thought they'd regained behind bars.

And, despite the jury of their peers deciding they were not guilty, a series of legal loopholes would keep them behind bars for the next 24 years.

This is part one of a series looking back on the Waverly Two's case. For part two, which breaks down their federal case, click here.