In a fit of rage at a man who owed him money, Brandon Bland pulled a gun and starting shooting at a Washington Road gas station. One bullet missed his target and struck an innocent victim who is now paralyzed.
Wednesday in Richmond County Superior Court, Bland, 45, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and weapons charges in a deal that called for 15 years in prison.
The only way to keep others safe is to keep Bland locked up, Judge Ashley Wright said.
Because having to be brought into court to testify would put the victim at risk, Wright agreed to accept the plea negotiation. Once released from prison, Bland will have another 20 years on probation.
He has been banished from Richmond County except for Mother’s Day and Christmas Day, the judge said.
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The 40-year-old woman left paralyzed after she was shot Aug. 26, 2021, was informed of the plea agreement, Assistant District Attorney William Hammond said. He read a letter she wrote while in the hospital.
“That gun that you shot, that you aimed so wildly … it severed my spinal cord,” the letter read.
She will never walk again. Fifteen or 20 years in prison would not be enough, she said. But in the end, she will remain a person of love and positivity and will forgive Bland.
“Good will overcome everything one day,” she wrote.
Hammond said Bland was charged with murder and armed robbery in 1993, but the murder charge was dismissed. In 2013, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in North Carolina.
According to media reports and North Carolina public records available online, Bland was charge with murder in a Dec. 23, 2008, home invasion in Rocky Mount, N.C. during which Marcella Hunter, 21, was shot to death. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to prison. He was released after a little more than six years.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
