A Northern Virginia man was ordered to serve 20 years in prison — the maximum sentence — for fatally shooting two teens at a home in Springfield in 2021.
Zachary Burkard, 20, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years for each voluntary manslaughter charge in the deaths of 17-year-old Ersheen Elaiaiser and 16-year-old Calvin Van Pelt. Once he gets out of prison he will have an additional three years of supervision.
Burkard, who was 18 at the time of the crime, was found guilty of manslaughter but not guilty of murder in August for Elaiaiser’s and Van Pelt’s deaths. Elaiaiser’s mother and another relative collapsed in apparent shock.
A jury recommended in August of 2022 that Burkard receive 20 years, the maximum possible penalty.
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“This is not justice,” Elaiaiser’s father said after the jury's sentencing recommendation.
Burkard told the jury he opened fire on the two South County High School students on April 25, 2021 because four teens had just beat up his friend and he was afraid they were all armed. He said he fired in self-defense.
Elaiaiser was shot twice in the chest and Van Pelt was shot once in the back at a home in the 8000 block of Winding Way Court, prosecutors said.
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"So sorry that this happened to him. You know, as a father, as a man, you're supposed to protect your kids and part of me feels like I failed. But I didn't pull that trigger," Van Pelt's father Michael Winfield said Thursday.
"He had a vision of the things he wanted to accomplish in the future, and his friends are definitely working to achieve those things," Elaiaiser's sister Nidal Elaiaiser said.
Burkard showed little emotion when he took the stand, but said “No!" when asked if he had meant to kill Elaiaiser. He said he was in an ongoing dispute with Elaiaiser and was at a friend’s house when he heard the 17-year-old was headed to the house with three others.
“I was scared. They said they would kill us. I was not prepared for this at all," Burkard told the court.
Burkard admitted he had been dealing drugs and had taunted Elaiaiser in a video, which was shown to the jury.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano previously said that while he shared the families’ disappointment that Burkard was not convicted of murder, he believed the jury’s recommended sentence sent a strong message.
“What it shows me is that they believed that there was a self-defense claim but not that it comported with law, but also that killing two young people with a fully automatic ghost gun is serious and deserves serious punishment,” he said.
Descano said the teens’ tragic deaths underscore two big problems fueling violence among teens: social media disputes and access to untraceable ghost guns.
“Anytime you have a gun like this that can be modified, that violence is going to lead to more death,” Descano said. “The only reason to have these types of guns is to commit crimes.”
