York man sentenced to 18 months for shooting man behind his house

The man who accidentally shot and killed a former James City County Board of Supervisors member in 2014 will serve about 18 months in prison.

Brandon Bartlett, 23, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years, with 8 years and 6 months suspended for the involuntary manslaughter charge in York-Poquoson Circuit Court.

In December 2014, David Ware Jr., 68, was found dead in the marsh reeds behind a house in the 1900 block of Lakeside Drive in the Grafton area of York County.

Ware, who was found with an unfired shotgun, had been accidentally shot by Bartlett, who lived in the house on Lakeside Drive, York County-Poquoson Sheriff J.D. “Danny” Diggs said at the time.

Neighbors told investigators at the time Ware was hunting a fox that had been killing chickens in the area. Officials said Bartlett told them he thought Ware was a deer.

Bartlett fired a 12-gauge shotgun into the reeds once; eight pellets hit Ware, York-Poquoson Commonwealth’s Attorney Benjamin M. Hahn has said.

Bartlett was originally charged with second-degree murder, but it was reduced to involuntary manslaughter in July 2015. His jury trial was canceled in March, when he pleaded guilty to the charge.

Under Virginia code, involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence between one and 10 years.

Bartlett remained free on bond with restrictions since the incident, and was taken into custody Thursday after the sentencing, said Lawrence H. Woodward Jr., his attorney.

Ware, the oldest of four siblings, represented the Stonehouse District on the Board of Supervisors in the 1970s. Prior to that, he graduated from the College of William and Mary and served as an infantry lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Bartlett, who is being held at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail, declined a request to be interviewed for this story.

Clift can be reached by phone at 757-247-7870.