Stabber settles $3 million suit for $3,600
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The last legal battle between Howard and Barbara Sisk and the man who killed their son was settled last week. Andrew Alston, left, agreed to pay $600,000 in the $3 million lawsuit the Sisks filed against him, but Alston’s bankruptcy further reduces that award to $3,600.
“There is no money to get,” says Howard Sisk. “We knew that from the get go.”
Alston, now 26, stabbed 22-year-old local firefighter Walker Sisk 18 times November 8, 2003. A Charlottesville jury convicted Alston of voluntary manslaughter in November 2004, and the former UVA biology major served almost all of his three-year sentence before being released in June 2006.
“Legally, that’s the last thing we can do,” says Sisk. “He insulated himself with bankruptcy in Pennsylvania.”
Sisk notes that the Pennsylvania bankruptcy court awarded the couple $2 million. “The Pennsylvania court said you can’t get out of civil suit by bankruptcy,” says Sisk, but he adds, “You can’t get blood out of a turnip.”
Alston’s lawyer did not immediately return phone calls, and Alston’s father, Robert Alston, a lawyer, hung up when a reporter telephoned.
“For Barbara and I, to be honest with you, I’m glad we didn’t have to go to court,” admits Sisk, about the civil trial that was supposed to begin March 3. “It would have opened that wound again.”
Alston maintained in court at his murder trial that the multiple stabbings were in self-defense.
“He’s going to get away with it again,” says Sisk. “He’s got teflon on him. Sure we got the judgment, but he got us again. Daddy saved him again.”
Sisk praises his attorney, Bryan Slaughter, who took the lawsuit at no cost to the Sisks, and his firm, Michie Hamlett. “There are some good lawyers in this town,” he says.
He still worries about Alston, who is on probation until 2009. “This guy is dangerous,” Sisk says. “I think this guy is a psychopath. For his family to keep enabling him– that’s sad.”
When Andrew was charged with punching his girlfriend in September 2003, his father ran interference, persuading the girlfriend to sign a statement saying that Andrew didn’t hit her– although she had claimed in court that he did. “I wanted us to be together,” sobbed the teary former GF.
The elder Alston also drove down from the family home in Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, the night Sisk was killed, arriving in Charlottesville before Andrew Alston was arrested.
Sisk wonders about Charlottesville juries like the one that convicted Alston of voluntary manslaughter rather than second-degree murder. He calls it the “Let’s give them milk and cookies” attitude. “I don’t think they have the capability of making hard decisions,” he says.
The settlement does not bring Walker Sisk’s parents closure, says his father. “This closure thing– what the hell does this mean? There isn’t any closure. There isn’t any justice. There’s just the end.”
Who was the actual prosecutor that handled this case in the courtroom? Does anybody recall? I would like to think Dave Chapman would have gotten quite a different verdict. Did Chapman personally do the case?
I didn’t attend, but our news accounts of the time indicate that it was Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Zug.–hawes spencer, editor
How much of a future will a fellow have who, by the time he’s 26, is not only guilty of voluntary manslaughter but is also bankrupt? He’s still got to get through his thirties.
Ahh, that explains it then. I never was impressed with Zug.
Sick–Are you ever impressed with anything?
C’ville eye–I understand what you are saying but Andy’s parents have to get through the rest of their lives. Their only child was killed by someone who pretty much got away with it. Mr. Alston’s dad is a lawyer and used the system. I hope Mr. Alston has a VERY hard time with the rest of his life. At least he has one.
Jenn, you didn’t read between the lines. Looking at his history, is there any doubt?
Maybe this guy should have to register as a sex offender he certainly screwed this whole family.
Yes Jenn, I am somewhat impressed when I see Dave Chapman in action. He knows the right questions to ask of each witness, and he knows when to ask them. I think Dave could have done a much better job in this case had he handled it. The only problem I see in Dave’s handling a jury trial is the jury itself usually.
I don’t know how anybody thinks any of this was detrimental to Alston. He will continue his education most likely, get a good job, and live happily ever after. And he will forever in his prayers thank the Charlottesville jury that let him off the hook.
I agree sick, It will not effect him. He will, or has finished his education and moved on. He certainly won’t put prison on his resume and probably end up doing very well. No one will know about it, not his futrue wife, kids, or any future co worker. The Sisk’s on the other hand will always have to live with this. I know them, they are wonderful people. There son was a good man who enjoyed helping others. He was a true loss to our community.
No one will know? I Googled Andrew Alston UVA (in case he’s looking for a job) and I got: Personalized Results 1 - 10 of about 30,300 for Andrew Alston UVA.
CVille Eye, with the hiring standards nowadays I am sure there are numerous companies or businesses that don’t even Google a person’s name. If the person is qualified to hire, they don’t want to find a reason not to. And incidentally, the only reason Google has so many hits right now is because “Alston” is still in their cache. And Google has an enormous catch. Probably the largest cache known to mankind.
For those who might wonder what I just said, see….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache
I just found myself on Google back to 1998.
C-ville—fair enough, the brain cells aren’t always firing correctly.
Sick of–O.K., good. And you are correct about Mr. Alston. Un fortunately.
Wow, I remember that night back in 2003. At the time I was living at 217 14th St, so this happened essentially right in front of our house. I was coming back from the corner that night and there were police EVERYWHERE. The crazy thing is, one of my roommates was also a volunteer firefighter with Sisk, and Alston had lived in the apt right beside my girlfriend on JPA. He had actually shown the knife to one of my gf’s roommates earlier that night (she ended up testifying in the criminal case). I still remember when the verdict, and later the sentencing, came back more than a year later, we were all like, are you SERIOUS?
What a sad sad situation this whole thing is.
Firefighter Sisk was brutally stabbed to death on a public sidewalk. How much must we suspend disbelief to hang onto our illusions that justice is being honorably served? So he got a bad Google record. We have at least one child in the county slapped with worse Google records though never hurting anybody or committing any crime and never found guilty of anything. Where is the justice that the officials designated by the people are honor bound to serve? More importantly, why are the people so complacent about the shortfall? I pray that none of us falls victim to Alston while strolling down a sidewalk.
Eye, their not going to google him. People put false degrees in their resumes and employers don’t check or discover it. There are false resumes submitted all the time and it is not discovered. Unless he applies for a gov’t job or something requiring security clearence it will never effect him.
There must be sufficient Googling going on that there are companies earning a profit trying to reduce their clients’ presence on the web. Witness the story in the Hook recently and on the cvillenews.com’s blog. Both received requests by the same firm for curtailment.
Pay attention, CVille Eye! Those who want their name removed from the web are usually trying to hide their past. And it’s often not a favorable past. The past school official was one of those, wasn’t she? Of course she wants her fiasco in Charlottesville hidden from sight. As Dog said, she will most likely apply for government jobs (school board related), which often do use Google because of all the sexual predator cases where schools have hired perverts accidentally.
Keep in mind the jury had a hand in letting, Andrew Alston UVA, walk as they also let OJ walk.
Is the system broken or broken by lawyers?
Sheep Dog, have you been reading http://www.badcopnews.com on a daily basis like I suggested? It just never ends. Amazing!
Here’s an agency that must not Google applicant’s names.
March 7, 2008
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - A veteran Chicago police officer was fired last month after an investigation revealed he concealed a felony conviction when he applied for the job in 1995, records show.
David Hayes, 39, pleaded guilty in 1995 to leaving the scene of an accident after he crashed a car into an Illinois state trooper’s vehicle, injuring the officer, and then fled. He turned himself in to state police and was eventually sentenced to 2 years of probation.
Months after pleading guilty, Hayes applied to be an officer, marking on his job application that he had never been convicted of a crime or been interviewed by police in a criminal matter.
A police investigator conducted a routine criminal background check, but the criminal conviction didn’t turn up.
Hey Sick-
What do you do for a living? I’d like to google that position to see how many people in similar jobs have gotten into trouble with the law. You seem to have a hard-on for cops. What about firefighters, teachers, preachers, water meter readers, etc? Guess those folks never put the screws to you.
Sick, you have to use the 1995 edition of Google.
Eric, I am a professional antagonist.
The magical thing about firefighters, teachers, preachers, water meter readers is the fact they don’t carry a badge and gun and arrest people for the same crimes they actually commit themselves. Just as I tell the others, read http://www.badcopnews.com on a daily basis for about a year. You would never have thought so many cops are arrested every year.
CVille Eye, I have Windows XP Professional.
It is not compatible with Google 95. :)
Then I guess you can’t Google newspaper articles that date back to 1995 anymore than the employers of that cop could.
Correct. I would probably hire him. And when he gets out on the street as a convicted felon acting his normal self, I would have to lie and deny at every turn in the road and cover for him.
Will this help the Google search? Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer….Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer…Andrew Alston UVA killer.
Sick, did you sit through the entire Alston trial? Have you been involved with the outcome of many Charlottevsille juries? Has it been lost on you that the City juries are very liberal for the most
part and typically let losers like Alston off easy- particularly if a UVA student? There are a lot of fine prosecutors in this area who probably couldn’t have received any different verdict. If Dave Chapmen thought he could have done any better he would have handled the high profile case himself. He chose an assistant prosecutor with years of violent crime experience and successful verdicts. I like a little antagonism but not when it’s thrown out without any real knowledge
about the facts to back it up.