Update: On Tuesday, February 4th, the man who pleaded guilty in the robbery and shooting at a Virginia Beach Chanello’s finally learned his fate.
Ryan Patrick Brown, 37, was sentenced to 80 year in the Department of Corrections. Officials say no portion of his sentence was suspended.
This sentence is over four times the recommended high end of the Virginia State Sentencing Guidelines.
Brown pleaded guilty on October 24th, 2013.
Virginia Beach, Va. – A 36-year-old man who was charged in the robbery and shooting at the Chanello’s Pizza on Aragona Blvd. back in 2012, has now pleaded guilty to charges related to this incident and others.
Officials say Ryan Patrick Brown of Charla Lee Lane in Virginia Beach, went on what they are calling a ‘crime spree’ between December 4th – 15th of 2012.
They say his spree started at the Chanellos’s Pizza on December 4th. They say he walked into the restaurant wearing a large coat, hat with ear flaps with sunglasses. A shift manager, pizza delivery driver, and the manager’s girlfriend were all inside at the time. They say Brown made a fake complaint to the manager, walked behind the counter, took out a pistol and shot the delivery driver in the head. They say the victim and the woman ran out of the back door and called 911.
Officials say Brown turned the gun on the shift manager and the two got into a struggle over the weapon. The manager was then shot in the left hip during the tussle. Brown also shot himself in the leg.
Officials say Brown ran out of ammo in the pistol and went to get another gun that was in his waistband. The manager made a plea for his life and he offered Brown money from the register as well as his own. Brown then left with at least $300.
Both shooting victims were treated and survived their injuries. Brown was linked to the crime through DNA, ballistic evidence and witness identification.
Then a few days later on December 8th, police say Brown shot and killed Edward Dale Chapple, a homeless man near the Virginia Beach Convention Center. They say Brown actually called 911 and told them that he’d shot Chapple in self defense. He said that the man pulled a knife on him. Police say Brown manipulated the crime scene by cutting himself. Officials say when they arrived on the scene, they saw Chapple on the ground with a knife in his hand and dollar bills arranged neatly around him. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
After an autopsy, police say they discovered that it was physically impossible for Chapple to continue to hold the knife in his hand after he died. They believe it was placed in his hand after he was shot. They also say there was no blood on the knife but they did find blood on a box cutter that was found on Brown.
Then the last incident happened on December 15th at Superior Pawn and Gun. Officials say Brown walked out of the store with a rifle valued at over $2,000.They say surveillance video showed him leaving the store and walking with the rifle into the parking lot. They say he then put it in the backseat of his car. He then walked back into the store.
They say employees then realized the rifle was missing and started to panic. Brown then returned the rifle to the store and said he had found it in the back of the building on the ground.
Brown was captured and charged with second degree murder, aggravated malicious wounding, malicious wounding, robbery, grand larceny, and use of a firearm.
Brown will be sentenced in February 2014.
Related:
Beach man charged in fatal shooting
Beach pizza store manager describes life-and-death struggle with robber
