PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A man who was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges in connection to a 2022 shooting in Portsmouth was sentenced Tuesday to 33 years in prison, with an additional five years of supervised probation.
Previously: Man found guilty of first-degree murd
er, other charges, in connection with 2022 shooting
Jerry Vann Pork Jr. received his sentence in Portsmouth Circuit Court after a jury found that Pork shot and killed Bernard Clack, 28, and wounded another man Aug. 2, 2022. In addition to being found guilty of first-degree murder, he was also found guilty of attempted malicious wounding, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a murder and the use of a firearm in an attempted malicious wounding.
According to trial evidence from prosecutors, Clack drove to a convenience store in the 3000 block of Turnpike Road with two other men in the car with him just after midnight Aug. 2, 2022. They made a purchase and left the store.
Pork was in the convenience store at the time and followed Clack's vehicle to the intersection of Portsmouth Boulevard and Deep Creek Boulevard, where he pulled up behind it, got out of the car and fired multiple shots into Clack's vehicle before leaving the area.
Clack was killed after one of those shots from Pork hit him in the back of the head, while another man in Clack's vehicle was wounded. The third man in the vehicle drove to the hospital, where Clack was later pronounced dead.
Pork was sentenced to 40 years in prison, with 15 of those years suspended, followed by five years of supervised probation, for the first-degree murder charge. He received a five year suspended sentence for attempted malicious wounding. For the charge of using a firearm in the commission of a murder, Pork was sentenced to three years in prison, and for using a firearm in an attempted malicious wounding, he was sentenced to five years in prison.
Pork was out of jail on probation at the time of the Portsmouth shooting, having received five years' probation after giving an Alford plea in connection to a 2021 shooting on Freeman Avenue in Suffolk. He had five charges nolle prossed in that case, including one for attempted murder. That probation was revoked April 26, 2023.
Previously: Man arrested in connection with shooting last July in Suffolk
An Alford plea allows someone to plead guilty to a crime while also maintaining their innocence and acknowledging prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction. ...read more read less