Lynchburg man sentenced to 38 years for robbery of 76-year-old woman

A Lynchburg man convicted of breaking into the home of a 76-year-old woman, beating her and robbing her at gunpoint was sentenced to 38 years in prison Friday.

“Every time I go to the door… I have a strange feeling someone’s going to be there,” the woman testified.

Now 78, the woman made her way to the front of the courtroom with the help of a cane. She was unable to climb the witness stand and testified from a chair in front of the prosecutor’s table.

She said she could hardly put the emotional impact of the attack into words.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Doucette told Judge Leyburn Mosby that after breaking into her home, David Herl Finney forced her into a chair at gunpoint then pistol whipped her whenever she tried to look up.

Finney, 37, pleaded guilty last July to abduction, burglary, robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted violent felon, and three counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony in the July 27, 2007, home invasion.

During the robbery, Finney took money from her purse, stole her car keys and tried to tie her up with her own sweater before stealing her car.

Finney was arrested shortly afterward by Lynchburg police in a chase that ended on foot.

His sentencing was delayed several times by mental health evaluations.

Public Defender Sharon Eimer told the court Friday that Finney has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Eimer said that while he was jailed here, Finney’s condition rapidly worsened because he refused to take his medication.

At one point, she said, he believed he was Jesus.

“His condition is such that you can’t just tell him to go get treatment,” she said, asking the judge to commit Finney to a state mental hospital instead of putting him in prison.

Without proper medical care, she said, Finney would never get better and wouldn’t even be able to appreciate that he was being punished for something.

Doucette argued that while the local jail may not have had the resources to ensure Finney took his medication and got the treatment he needed, the state prison system would.

He said Finney, who had been married, had a work history and had attended community college, was not as dysfunctional as Eimer claimed.

Before being sentenced, Finney apologized to the woman.

Mosby sentenced him to 18 years of mandatory prison time for the gun crimes, and for:

- Burglary, 25 years with 15 suspended;

- Robbery, 15 years with 10 suspended; and

- Abduction, 10 years with five suspended.

“There’s a tremendous impact on her,” the judge said. “She’s afraid every day.”