Prosecutor files response to motion seeking sentence reduction in Hooper case

by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi

LANCASTER—A King William prosecutor filed a motion last week in response to a request for a sentence reduction for John R. “Rand” Hooper of Richmond, who was convicted of two felonies in relation to the death of his longtime friend, Graham McCormick.

McCormick was found drowned following a boating accident in Lancaster County in August 2017. Hooper’s attorneys filed a motion for a sentence reduction exactly five years and day after McCormick’s body was discovered in Carter Creek near the end of Weems Road. He’d been visiting Hooper and other friends at the Hoopers’ home in Irvington.

Hooper was convicted in January of involuntary manslaughter and failure to render aid. Norfolk Judge Charles E. Poston sentenced Hooper to six years, including 15 years on both charges with nine suspended. He received 10 years, with four suspended, for the involuntary manslaughter charge, and five, all suspended, on the hit and run conviction.

Matthew Kite, King William’s Commonwealth’s Attorney who served as a special prosecutor in the case, filed a motion last week asking the court to overrule and dismiss the request….