Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 ran Sept. 10 and walked the Prince William County file: a felon on probation, a February gun case, and a form saying the prosecutor’s office agreed to let him walk without cash. Read it here: Prosecutor said yes: Bond, a dead girl, and a silent CA’s office.
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Ashley Intihar was 16 when she was shot and killed in a packed Old Town on First Friday, Sept. 4. Two of the three men later charged were already free on other cases.
Part 1 of this series walked the Prince William file: a felon on probation, a February gun case, and a form saying the prosecutor’s office agreed to let him walk without cash. This part is Richmond.
In 2021, a Democratic General Assembly and Gov. Ralph Northam wiped out whole lists of charges that used to start with a presumption against bail. A Republican governor tried a narrower restoration the next year and lost in the Senate. After Intihar’s death, two Republicans in this coverage area say put that old starting point back. The Manassas-area Democratic senator says the system failed the girl and she will write a different bill — transparency in bond and probation — without saying she will restore those lists.
What the 2021 law did
The bill is Senate Bill 1266, 2021 Special Session I. Sens. Jennifer McClellan and Joe Morrissey were co-patrons, both Democrats. McClellan is now in Congress. Morrissey is running for Petersburg City Council.
The Legislative Information System summary as passed is one sentence: it “eliminates provisions regarding the rebuttable presumptions against being admitted to bail.”
Before July 1, 2021, if the charge sat on a long list — acts of violence, life or death offenses, listed drug and gun counts, and more — the officer “shall presume, subject to rebuttal, that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure” the person will show up or that the public will be safe. The starting point was jail. Defense had to talk the court off that line.
Northam signed the bill March 24, 2021. It took effect July 1, 2021.
The Senate passed it Feb. 2, 2021, 21-18. The House passed it Feb. 24, 52-45. The Senate accepted the House amendments Feb. 25, 21-18. Those totals are from the Legislative Information System.
Jay Jones, a Democrat, was then a Norfolk delegate. He is now attorney general. Contemporaneous coverage of the House vote described Democrats as in favor and Republicans as opposed.
What the code says now, in § 19.2-120: a person in custody “shall be admitted to bail” unless there is probable cause they will not appear, or their liberty is an unreasonable danger to themselves, family or household members, or the public. There is no charge list. There is no “shall presume.”
Overall, judges and magistrates can still deny bond.
What the 2021 law did not do
It did not erase a different statute.
In February 2026, when a judge converted Douglas’s $5,000 secured gun-case bond to $5,000 unsecured, that section still said a person arrested for a felony who already had a felony conviction, or who was on probation or parole, “may be released only upon a secure bond” unless the judge and Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth both waived it.
On July 1, 2026, a new law took effect. House Bill 357, Chapter 123, patroned by Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Charlottesville, dropped the secured-only default for prior felons and people on probation. It also added two items to the list a judicial officer must consider: whether the person is already on bond somewhere else, and whether the person is on probation or parole.
A year earlier, House Bill 2328, Chapter 717, patroned by Del. Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, had added pregnancy, recent birth, or nursing as another factor. That took effect July 1, 2025.
The factor list is now 11 items. Eight came from the 2021 bill. Three came later.
Youngkin’s try
In 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin put a budget amendment on the table — Amendment 32. It did not fully repeal SB 1266. It would have put a presumption against bail back for acts of violence, life offenses, and a felony committed while already out.
The Senate blocked it. Sen. Tara Durant, R-Fredericksburg, said this month that “Senate Democrats blocked it.” This desk has not pulled the June 17, 2022, journal with each name. Individual votes on that amendment are not named here. The earned-sentence-credit fight that season is a different vote.
What they say after the killing
Potomac Local asked the Prince William and Manassas delegation, and Republicans in the wider coverage area, whether they would restore the old presumption in the 2027 session.
Del. Phil Scott, R-63, answered Sept. 9 through his director, Craig Francis.
“Unfortunately, this bill went through during a Democrat trifecta, and elections have consequences which are not fully realized immediately,” Scott said. “Bad legislation such as this is rampant in our state and real people are suffering real consequences because of it. I will support and co-patron a bill to repeal these provisions, as people like Douglas should not have been there in the first place; now a local teen is no longer with us. We have to keep our residents safe and end soft-on-crime policies where possible.”
He did not say he would be chief patron. He said support and co-patron.
“When someone with a felony conviction is on supervised probation, faces new firearm charges, is released on bond, and is then alleged to have violated the conditions of that release, those are serious warning signs that should matter when decisions about release are being made,” said Durant.
She said yes on restoring a presumption against bail for violent cases, a felon with a gun, and people already under court supervision. She said she is open to patroning or co-patroning a carefully drafted bill. The package is not written. She sent condolences to Intihar’s family. She listed what she called warning signs in this file: a felony record, probation, new gun charges, and an alleged violation of release conditions.
“The system failed a 16-year-old girl,” wrote Sen. Danica Roem, D-30, Manassas, and Manassas Park. “Whether it was errors in judgment during the bail determination, monitoring someone on probation to know exactly where he was when the warrant for his arrest went out, or our laws needing to be more prescriptive for judicial officers, the system failed a 16-year-old girl who should still be with us today.”
She did not say she would restore the 2021 charge lists.
She argued current law already lets a judge deny bail for flight or danger. She walked through the 11 factors. She said SB 1266 added two groups — family and household members — so officers could deny bail on that basis, and that officers always had discretion because the old rule was “subject to rebuttal.”
Those last points are an incomplete description of the act. Chapter 337 did add “family or household members” to the danger line. It also added factors to the statute. The official summary is still that the bill eliminated the rebuttable presumptions against bail. Current § 19.2-120 has no charge-based “shall presume” block. The bill adds household members. It is not what the bill is.
No other members of the Prince William County and Manassas delegation responded to our request for comment
Intihar would have been a junior at Patriot High School. The three men charged in her killing — Tasheem Rashad Douglas, 21; Antione Jawayne Wanzer, 18; and Da’Shawn Javon Davis, 21 — were still held without bond at the Prince William County Adult Detention Center as of Friday, Sept. 18.
Their preliminary hearings are Nov. 10.
