Four men found guilty of taking part in 2016 murder of a Norfolk woman
Four men charged with taking part in the 2016 murder of a Norfolk woman over her nephew’s drug debt were found guilty Monday of all charges and now face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
A jury in federal court in Norfolk deliberated several hours over two days before convicting Jaquate Simpson, Landis Jackson, Kalub Shipman and Nelson Evans of a variety of murder, conspiracy and drug trafficking charges related to the April 19, 2016, slaying of Lillian “Resa” Bond.
U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr., who presided over the 2 ½-week trial, didn’t set a sentencing date.
Bond, 59, was wheeling her trashcan to the curb of her house in Norfolk’s Ingleside neighborhood when a car pulled up and a gunman got out and shot her six times. The mother and grandmother, who’d worked as a housekeeping supervisor at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters for many years, died at the scene.
Several of Bond’s relatives attended the trial. Each expressed gratitude for the verdicts afterward.
“It has been a long time coming,” said Bond’s niece, Precious Hill. “We thank God that we finally have the closure we need to begin our healing process.”
All four men convicted in the case are from the Greensboro, North Carolina, area.
Testimony showed Simpson and Jackson, both 38, had been running a multimillion-dollar drug ring that worked with a Mexican cartel to supply hundreds of kilos of cocaine to central North Carolina and Hampton Roads. Among the dealers they worked with was Bond’s nephew, Brandon Williams of Norfolk.
In April 2016, Williams took two kilos of cocaine valued at $81,000 from a woman who delivered drugs for Simpson and Jackson and didn’t pay for it. The two men quickly sought out a hitman to “fix the situation” and “teach (Williams) a lesson,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bird told jurors during closing arguments.
Simpson told Jackson the hit man was to kill anyone — man, woman or child — who came out of the house where Williams lived. Williams was staying with Bond at the time.
Shipman, 35, a Nine Trey gang member, was hired to do the job, according to testimony. He then enlisted his longtime friend Evans, 32, to help. The payment offered: $10,000 for each person killed.
A neighbor who witnessed the late morning shooting testified Bond was taking her trashcan to the curb when a two-tone, black and gray Lexus sedan with North Carolina plates pulled up. The neighbor said he saw a man with a gun get out of the passenger side and then heard several shots.
The case remained cold for years, until a woman who’d worked with Simpson and Jackson was charged in another case and offered to provide information about Bond’s murder in exchange for leniency.
The investigation of the drug and murder charges against the four men was conducted by local and federal investigators in Virginia and North Carolina, and included information gathered through wiretaps played during the trial. In them, Simpson and others can be heard discussing the hired hit.
Jurors also were presented with surveillance footage showing a Lexus that matched the description given by Bond’s neighbor driving toward her neighborhood minutes before the shooting and then leaving minutes afterward. Footage from the Downtown Tunnel showing a black and gray Lexus with North Carolina plates driving into Norfolk shortly before the shooting and then leaving shortly afterward also was shown. The plates were traced to a Lexus belonging to Evans’ girlfriend, Chanel Richmond.
Richmond testified the car belonged to Evans but was registered in her name. She said Evans told her he was going to Virginia shortly before the shooting. When he came back, she saw him counting a large sum of money. She also said he asked her to search the internet for a shooting in Virginia but she wasn’t able to find the information.
Lawyers for the four men argued many of the government’s witnesses couldn’t be trusted. Many of them are serving prison sentences and admitted during testimony they’re hoping to get their sentences reduced as a result of their cooperation. Nelson’s lawyer also argued the description Bond’s neighbor provided for the gunman wasn’t even close to matching his client and that cell phone data presented at trial pointed to someone else being there.
Bird, one of three prosecutors on the case, conceded that while many of the government’s witnesses had questionable backgrounds, they were the ones who were there to witness it all.
“Yes they’re criminals,” Bird told jurors. “Nobody’s denying it. No one’s trying to hide it ... (But) they were in the best position to know what happened.”