PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WVEC) — A former Portsmouth police officer who was convicted of shooting an unarmed teenager walked out of state prison on Monday.
Stephen Rankin was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for killing 18-year-old William Chapman. According to jail records, he will be released from Dillwyn Correctional Center, which is located about an hour east of Lynchburg.
Rankin was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Chapman outside a Portsmouth Walmart in 2015. Then in 2017, a three-judge panel for Virginia's Court of Appeals denied his request to have a new trial.
Rankin's attorney had argued mistakes were made during his original trial and earlier this year, Virginia's Supreme Court agreed to hear Rankin's appeal case.
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