ROANOKE, Virginia — A former Franklin County deputy sheriff was sentenced Wednesday to three life terms in prison for the fatal shooting of his ex-wife and the wounding of a Virginia State Police sergeant.
Media outlets report that Roanoke Circuit Judge Charlie Dorsey gave Jonathan Agee the maximum sentence for first degree murder, attempted capital murder and aggravated malicious wounding. He also sentenced Agee to a combined six years on firearms charges and five years for eluding police.
Agee pleaded no contest in January to first-degree murder in Jennifer Agee's 2011 shooting death in Roanoke.
He also pleaded no contest in Montgomery County in January to charges related to the wounding of former State Police Sgt. Matthew Brannock during a chase on Interstate 81 shortly after the Roanoke shooting.
The life terms exceeded sentencing guidelines, which Doresey said "were flawed in this case." He said judicial guidelines are based by the General Assembly on value judgments, not experience.
"In cases of this magnitude, could the General Assembly really have envisioned any set of circumstances more horrendous?" Dorsey said.
The punishments all stem from a violent Memorial Day 2011 crime spree which began with the fatal midday shooting of Agee's ex-wife on a convenience store parking lot. Within an hour of Jennifer Agee's death, Brannock was injured by gunfire on Interstate 81 in Montgomery County as he pursued the gunman.
Jonathan Agee was wounded and captured that day near the I-81 exit at Ironto, and he was charged in Roanoke and Montgomery County as the sole person responsible for the shootings.
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