Woman pleads guilty to voluntary manslaughter

A Waynesboro woman charged for the murder of her boyfriend pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter this morning in circuit court.

Following a plea agreement, a judge sentenced Eva E. Hamby, 50, to four years and 2 months in prison for the November stabbing death of Jeffrey Allen Gischel, 45, in a third-floor apartment at The Holly House, 720 King Avenue.

“The Commonwealth had a fair amount of physical evidence, but we didn’t have a witness,“ said Waynesboro Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney David Ledbetter.

Waynesboro police responded to the Holly House at about 11:40 p.m. on Nov. 19,  where they found Gischel suffering from a stab wound. He died early Nov. 20 after emergency surgery while en route to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

Police recovered a kitchen-type knife at the scene.

Defense attorney Dana Cormier called the agreement “fair.“

“At [Hamby’s] age ... I think it was a good agreement,“ he said.

Second-degree murder, for which authorities initially charged Hamby, carries a possible 40-year sentence. The maximum voluntary manslaughter sentence is 10 years. Ledbetter said Hamby’s sentence is at the midpoint of state sentencing guidelines.

Gischel, a Baltimore-area man and soon-to-be first-time grandfather, lived “off and on” at the apartment, relatives and neighbors said. His death came just days after the man’s brother “had a bad feeling” about his well-being.

Read a full courtroom report in the Friday print edition of The News Virginian.