Detective: Newport News slaying was retaliatory
Accused killer’s confession revealed at preliminary hearing
NEWPORT NEWS — A city detective testified to hearing a 21-year-old man charged with first-degree murder confess to killing a Newport News man earlier this year.
The confession was detailed during a preliminary hearing Friday in Newport News General District Court. Surveillance footage of the Jan. 25 killing of Brian Fonville also was shown to the courtroom, eliciting tears from dozen or so friends and family members of Fonville.
Asron Marquis Sellers, of Newport News, is charged with first-degree murder and a firearms charge in Fonville’s slaying — the city’s first homicide of the year. A passerby discovered Fonville’s body nearly 10 hours after he was shot multiple times in the 5000 block of Mercury Boulevard, behind a strip of businesses in the Newmarket Shopping Center.
Sellers also is accused in the non-fatal shooting of a transgender woman in Hampton just days before Fonville’s body was found. Sellers was indicted Tuesday on charges related to that incident, according to online court records.
The separate attacks took place about a mile apart along Mercury Boulevard, which spans Newport News and Hampton.
According to testimony from Newport News detective D. K. McCord, Sellers arranged to meet with Fonville, 38, after connecting through an online escort website.
Surveillance footage from a nearby business the night of the homicide and shown during Friday’s hearing depicts a man exiting the driver’s seat of a sedan and pointing a gun at the passenger. McCord identified the man as Sellers and the passenger as Fonville.
The video shows a man identified as Fonville getting out of the car, hands raised in what McCord described as a “don’t shoot” plea. The two walk around behind the car before Fonville starts running away with the man identified as Sellers chasing. According to McCord, Sellers told police that
when Fonville ran, he yelled “Where are you going?”
McCord said that’s when Sellers started shooting — killing Fonville.
Sellers fled, then was arrested by Hampton police in relation to the non-fatal shooting three days after Fonville’s body was found.
Hampton police determined Sellers to be a suspect after linking a TextNow number he used to communicate with the victim to an email address, according to a probable cause statement filed in Hampton General District Court. Sellers was found to be the owner of that Gmail account, as well as other related accounts, after detectives obtained a search warrant, the statement says.
“Mr. Sellers was questioned about the Newport News Homicide due to the similarities in the case Hampton was investigating,” a probable cause statement filed in Newport News General District Court reads.
Recounting Sellers’ questioning by Hampton police, for which he was present, McCord said Sellers spoke with his grandmother during a call facilitated by police. When his grandmother asked if Sellers committed the crime, Sellers answered that he did, McCord said. When asked why, Sellers told his grandmother that Fonville had sexually assaulted him two years ago, McCord said.
Sellers’ attorney, Artisha Gregg, and Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Pyecha, who is prosecuting the homicide case, declined to comment on the sexual assault allegation, with Pyecha citing the ongoing nature of the homicide case.
Police also showed Sellers a still image of the surveillance footage during questioning, and Sellers identified himself as the gunman depicted, McCord testified.
Sellers “stated he deliberately made contact with the victim and had already planned to kill him when he picked the victim up in his car,” the probable cause statement says.
Gregg said she believes Sellers was under the influence of several drugs during the police interview based on comments he made to the officers. Gregg has not received a recording of the interview from Hampton police.
Based on conversations with Sellers and his family members, Gregg believes Sellers has severe mental health issues. The attorney plans to order a psychological evaluation.
Sellers also was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle and another firearms charge, but prosecutors dropped the charges Friday. Judge Richard Kerns certified the remaining charges against Sellers, proceeding the case to a grand jury that slated for Aug. 8.