Pubdate: Sat, 04 Nov 2006 Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Copyright: 2006 Richmond Newspapers Inc. Contact: http://www.timesdispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365 Author: Rex Bowman, staff writer VA. HIGH COURT ORDERS NEW TRIAL FOR AGENT WHO SHOT MAN The Virginia Supreme Court announced yesterday that it has overturned the manslaughter conviction of a federal agent who fatally shot a man in a fight outside a Roanoke restaurant. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial. The high court ruled that evidence the state discovered after the trial should have been given to Timothy Workman's attorney before sentencing. Workman, an agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison but has been out on bond pending the high court's decision. Workman's attorney, Tony Anderson, said he has spoken with Workman by phone and he is elated with the court's decision. Workman was in Roanoke working on a marijuana case when the Feb. 12, 2002, incident occurred. According to trial testimony, Workman and Keith Bailey, 41, had been drinking in O'Charley's restaurant that evening. Outside the restaurant, as Workman sat with a Roanoke woman in her car, Bailey approached with a friend and asked the woman why she was with Workman. A fight ensued and Workman, then 31, pulled his gun and shot Bailey dead. He claimed that he acted in self-defense because a friend of Bailey's, James A. Bumbry II, was coming at him with a gun. At trial, Bumbry denied the accusation. Originally charged with first-degree murder, Workman was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. If prosecutors decide to go forward with a new trial, Workman would face a charge no more severe than that. According to the Supreme Court's decision to reverse the conviction, a man had given a detective investigating the case secondhand information that Bumbry had tried to pass a gun to Bailey during the fight. That information, the court ruled, should have been disclosed to Workman's attorney. Yesterday, Anderson said that since the trial, Workman has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan as a private contractor. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin