VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia Beach man was convicted of stalking and was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail, with 90 days suspended.
Connor Land, 21, was found guilty of tailing a woman to a Dollar General, following her around the store, following her home and knocking on her door twice. The incident occurred April 9.
10 On Your Side previously reported on Land when a judge granted a deferred finding in a previous electronic tracking case based on his autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. That charge was ultimately dismissed. The victim in that case opposed the move, pushing for a conviction.
Land took the stand late in the trial, Tuesday, telling the court that he didn’t intend any harm and has trouble communicating with others. He said he began following the woman because he liked her bumper stickers.
The victim recounted realizing she was being followed in the store and said she considered calling a family member for help. When he didn’t immediately follow her out of the building, she thought she was in the clear.
That was until he rang her doorbell a few minutes later, introduced himself, said he was a creep and asked to be friends.
“I feared that if I was home alone, maybe something could’ve happened to me,” she said. “… [I could’ve been] hurt or assaulted.”
She said he tried to give her a sticker, which she didn’t take. He also asked if she was home alone.
Eventually, she told Land that her fiancé was coming home and he needed to leave immediately. He left a short time later.
“You could tell she was shaken up, … eyes wide, scared he was going to come back,” the victim’s fiancé told the court of her appearance when he got home.
About an hour later, after the victim had spoken with a police officer, Land returned.
This time, the victim’s fiancé answered the door. He told the court that Land said he wanted to apologize and asked if they could get to know each other.
About two minutes into the interaction, he testified, Land put his hands in his pockets and told him that he was “unloaded.”
“That freaked me out,” the fiancé said.
“Do not come back. … For your own good, don’t come back,” the man told Land in a video of the incident played for the court.
“OK, I will not come back,” Land said in reply.
The fiancé said Land also said he wished everything goes well for him, before leaving.
The victim filed a protective order that night. Police did not immediately charge Land.
Land’s defense attorney, Kristin Paulding, motioned to strike the charge based on the wording of the law. She argued that it required multiple incidents with the same victim, and that this didn’t qualify because the second interaction only involved the victim’s fiancé.
The judge said she did not see it the same way. She said she considered each of Land’s decisions — to follow the victim’s car, to follow her through the store, to follow her home, and to return —as an individual instance for the charge.
Paulding then asked for a deferred finding, noting that the state law allows for multiple usages.
The prosecutor argued against it, telling the judge that the statute also requires consideration of the victims and that it was time — after multiple similar incidents — for Land to face real consequences.
The judge ultimately settled on a conviction, but said she was not going to levy the maximum punishment to allow Land to continue getting treatment and counseling.
Land was sentenced to 365 days, with 90 days suspended, along with a no-contact order and requirement that he comply with all doctor-prescribed treatment. The terms allow him to leave the state for in-patient therapy.