Norfolk man gets 40 years for 2 stabbing deaths
NORFOLK — A Norfolk man was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison for fatally stabbing two men.
L.C. Grant III, 36, was found guilty in a jury trial last year of second-degree murder for the slaying of Donta Antonio Jackson, 31. He pleaded guilty to the same charge Thursday for the death of 50-year-old Michael Dewayne Mizzell.
Circuit Judge Robert B. Rigney sentenced Grant to 40 years for each murder, but said the terms could be served concurrently, according to prosecutors.
The killings occurred within days of each other in the fall of 2020.
On Oct. 27, Jackson and Grant had sex in a car parked outside of a North Military Highway restaurant, after which Grant stabbed Jackson numerous times, prosecutors said. Jackson went to a nearby business for help, telling patrons the man who stabbed him had driven away in a white Mitsubishi Mirage that belonged to Jackson’s girlfriend. He died shortly after arriving at Sentara Leigh Hospital.
A DNA sample recovered from his body was later determined to be a match for Grant, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 2, a friend of Mizzell’s reported him missing after not hearing from him for several days. Police went to his home on Willoughby Spit a few days later and found him dead inside a closet. A medical examiner later determined he’d been stabbed more than two dozen times. Mizell’s family told police Grant lived with him, acting as a caregiver.
Two days after Mizzell was killed, a local bail bondsman took Grant into custody for not paying his bill in a previous case, prosecutors said. Among the items confiscated from Grant were three large knives and an electronic benefits transfer card belonging to Mizzell. Grant was later arrested and charged by police.