Release Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2009 4 p.m.
Harvey L. Bryant, Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Virginia Beach, announced today that Michael Anthony Matthan, 25 years old, a Jamaican national, pleaded guilty today to one count of Involuntary Manslaughter in the Circuit Court of Virginia Beach. Upon recommendation of the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, the Honorable Edward W. Hanson, Circuit Court Judge, sentenced Matthan to the time served in the Virginia Beach City Jail. The sentencing guidelines recommended probation/no incarceration. Matthan has been in custody since March 25, 2009.
The Commonwealth’s evidence proved that in the early morning hours of March 8, 2009, both Matthan and the victim, Nicholas Hopwood, also Jamaican, were patrons at MP Island Café, a Jamaican themed restaurant and nightclub located on Holland Road in the City of Virginia Beach. Matthan was in the United States on a short-term visa visiting friends and was scheduled to return to Jamaica the next morning. Mr. Hopwood and Matthan had an altercation on the dance floor. Matthan shoved Mr. Hopwood twice with a closed fist to the chest. Mr. Hopwood stumbled into the kitchen and immediately collapsed. Mr. Hopwood died as a result of a single shallow stab wound to the chest.
As Matthan and several of his associates were exiting the nightclub, an associate of Mr. Hopwood’s confronted Matthan and his associates in the parking lot outside of the MP Island Café, at which time Matthan was shot in the face and one of his associates, Keegan King, was shot in the leg. Charges stemming from those two shootings are being prosecuted by the Chesapeake Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office due to a conflict as the result of Matthan being a victim in the related case. The trial of Ernest Quallis, the person accused of shooting Matthan and King, is scheduled to begin on December 1, 2009.
Matthan was charged with Second Degree Murder and Voluntary Manslaughter. The Second Degree Murder charge was nol pros’d and the Voluntary Manslaughter charge was reduced to Involuntary Manslaughter as a result of conflicting witness accounts and witnesses failing to appear for court. Matthan continues to be held on a Detainer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Senior Commonwealth’s Attorney Charles D. Griffith, Jr. prosecuted the case. Please call Julie Pickell if additional information is desired.
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