Witness: Hitman celebrated after slaying of Norfolk woman

NORFOLK — Hours after a 59-year-old Norfolk woman was gunned down outside her home in 2016, one of the men prosecutors say was responsible posted a video to Facebook, according to testimony Friday in U.S. District Court.

The video showed Kalub Shipman and his gang boss feasting on crab legs at a Red Lobster, testified Kevin Moore, a homicide detective in Norfolk at the time who now works for the FBI.

Shipman can be heard saying “fine dining” in the video, which was played in court Friday.

Moore’s testimony and the playing of the video came during the second day of trial for four North Carolina men charged with taking part in the April 19, 2016, shooting death of Lillian “Resa” Bond outside her home in the Ingleside neighborhood. The trial is expected to last about a month and will feature dozens of witnesses and hundreds of exhibits.

Two of the men — Shipman and longtime friend Nelson Evans — are charged with carrying out the shooting while the other two — Jaquate Simpson and Landis Jackson — are accused of hiring them to do it, as well as running a multimillion-dollar drug ring out of Greensboro.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Butler told jurors Thursday during opening statements that Shipman and his gang boss were celebrating at the restaurant that night because Shipman and Evans successfully carried out a “hit” Shipman had been hired to do.

The job had called for Shipman to kill “anyone and everyone” seen coming out of a house on Trice Terrace in Norfolk, Butler told jurors. The home belonged to Bond. Her nephew, Brandon Williams, who prosecutors have said owed $81,000 in drug money to Simpson, was living there at the time.

Shipman and Evans arrived at Bond’s house in a black and gray Lexus with North Carolina license plates the morning of the shooting, according to prosecutors, and Evans shot Bond as she was wheeling her trash can to the curb. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

In other testimony Friday, Chanel Richmond, a former girlfriend of Evans, testified that the Lexus seen in photos recorded at the Downtown Tunnel the day of the shooting was registered in her name but belonged to Evans.

Richmond told jurors that around the time of the killing, Evans told her he was going to Virginia. When he returned, she saw him sitting on a bed, counting out a large sum of money.

Also testifying Friday was Maurice Barnes, a longtime friend of Bond’s nephew who is serving a 16-year prison sentence for drug dealing.

Barnes told jurors he used to drive to North Carolina a couple times a week to purchase kilos of cocaine from a woman who got her drugs from Simpson. He said he and his friends eventually got to know Simpson and began to party with him.

The relationship with Simpson ended after Bond was killed, Barnes said. Bond treated Barnes and her nephew’s other friends like family, he said, and they were devastated by her death.

“She was a good and loving woman,” Barnes said.

While Barnes conceded he agreed to testify to try to get his prison sentence reduced, there were other reasons, he said, including the fact that he felt somewhat responsible for what happened to Bond.

“I want to bring closure to her family,” he said. “I just want to do the right thing.”