DNA helped solve this Pensacola cold case. The first of two suspects has been sentenced.

It's been two decades since Marcus Virgin went missing. One of the men responsible for his killing was sentenced Thursday.

David Lasha Dale, 42, was charged in 2020 as a principal to Virgin's first-degree premeditated murder, but he took a plea deal in 2023 which he pleaded no contest to manslaughter — with a 12-year-sentence cap — rather than face the capital felony.

"Frankly, there is an individual whose body has never been found, and you have entered a plea indicating that you were a principal to manslaughter of that particular individual," Escambia Circuit Judge John Simon told Dale prior to sentencing. "You walk out of here today, and you walk out still living and breathing — the victim in the case does not.

"Now we get to see how the family suffers over losing someone and the fact that they can't bury that individual properly," the judge added. "Frankly, I think 12 years is more than appropriate, and if it wasn't capped I'd probably give you more."

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What happened on May 8, 2003?

Virgin was 24 years old on May 8, 2003 when he got into a car with Dale to take a trip to Mobile, Alabama, and was never seen again by his family. His body has never been found.

According to his arrest report, Dale picked up Virgin for a trip to visit friends in Mobile around 9 p.m. on May 8, 2003, at the home of Virgin’s grandmother on Montclair Road in Pensacola.

Dale arrived in a rented 2000 Mitsubishi Galant, accompanied by two other individuals. The first individual — Keishaun Irby — is the man prosecutors believe actually killed Virgin that night. The second witness was Tristan Fairley, who investigators believe was unaware of the plot.

“Based on other information in this case, I do not believe that (the witness) was aware of the plan to kill Virgin, and that his role in the murder, if any, was minimal, especially compared to that of Dale,” an investigating deputy wrote in the report.

Irby is charged with the first-degree premeditated murder of Virgin and is awaiting his next court date on July 6.

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Why did Marcus Virgin's killing turn into a cold case?

Virgin's investigation was launched after his mother, Donna Jones, reported Virgin missing May 19, 2003, 11 days after the incident.

After not hearing from her son, Jones contacted Irby, who told her that Virgin had been dropped off around 3 a.m. on May 9, 2003, near some railroad tracks back behind his grandmother’s home.

When Jones called her son’s friends in Mobile, they denied seeing him at all, she later explained to law enforcement, and an investigation into Virgin’s disappearance was launched.

Cell phone records showed incoming and outgoing calls were received and made by Virgin’s cellphone up until 2:30 a.m. on May 9, 2003, the report stated. “After that time, incoming calls still took place, but were never answered and no outgoing calls were ever made again.”

The case went cold until the ECSO located a rental car in 2007, which had been rented by the three men, and discovered trace amounts of blood on the carpet inside the trunk. Due to the limitations of DNA technology at that time and the small sample size, analyses of blood did not yield positive DNA profile matches.

But as time progressed, so did technology.

The DNA was reanalyzed and compared to blood samples provided by Virgin’s parents. The results showed a greater than 99.98% likelihood that the blood found in the rental car’s trunk belonged to a male child of Virgin’s parents.

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How did the ECSO find David Dale?

Escambia County Sheriff's deputies had re-interviewed Dale in 2008 and he admitted that he intended to kill Virgin and "that Irby showed him the firearm that he planned to use," an arrest report stated.

Dale told prosecutors the four men stopped on the side of the road after returning from Mobile, and everyone except Dale exited the vehicle.

"He heard a shot, then saw Virgin running away with Irby chasing him and Fairley following behind Irby," Dale told authorities in the report. "The gun appeared to jam, at which time Irby beat Virgin with the gun until it broke to pieces, and Fairley beat him with a stick."

Dale said the two men put Virgin in the trunk, drove to the Pensacola High School track and stabbed Virgin in the throat. They then disposed of the gun, knife and Virgin's phone in a drain.

Investigators, however, believe it was Dale who took part in the murder and not Fairley.

There was still no substantiating evidence until the new DNA technology identified Virgin's blood in the trunk in 2020.

Once a warrant was put out for Dale's arrest, he turned himself in, according to the ECSO.

What did Marcus Virgin's daughter have to say?

Virgin's oldest daughter, Markeila Vergain, was 6 years old in 2003 when he went missing, and she told the court that Dale was a person who took a loving person from a loving family, leaving a large gap in the family.

"He left behind a lot of stuff and family members who loved him," Vergain said. "I would like you to consider the pain that we've been put through, and the loss that my kids are going to experience."

She then asked Simon to levy the maximum penalty on Dale.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Marcus Virgin murder: David Dale sentenced in Pensacola cold case