Doorbell camera footage linked a Virginia Beach man to a fatal shooting. Now he’ll serve 30 years.
A Virginia Beach man who police linked to a 2018 attempted robbery and homicide using doorbell camera footage was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison.
The term Virginia Beach Circuit Judge Les L. Lilley issued to 22-year-old Bobby Cason was the maximum he could get under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. Cason pleaded guilty last summer to first-degree murder, attempted robbery and illegal use of a handgun.
The fatal shooting occurred Nov. 29, 2018 at the Land’s End condominium complex in Virginia Beach’s Seatack community.
The victim, Devin Bell, was alone in his home when Cason knocked on his door that morning, according to a statement provided by the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office. Bell didn’t open the door but had a “strange conversation” with Cason through the closed door and noticed Cason continued to hang around the complex afterward.
Bell contacted some friends who came over to check out the situation. Armed with a handgun, Cason, then 18, ran up to one of them and demanded his property. When Cason realized the man had nothing but a cup of coffee on him, prosecutors said he turned toward Bell and said he “needed something.”
Bell gave his cellphone to Cason, who responded by pulling out a second handgun and demanding that Bell let him inside. A struggle ensued during which Cason shot Bell in the neck.
Police were later able to link Cason to the crime through Ring doorbell footage, prosecutors said. Detectives also found a latex glove near Bell’s body that had Cason’s DNA on it.
Neither of the two handguns were ever recovered. At Cason’s grandparents’ house, police found bullets that matched the type found near Bell’s body, as well as red shoes that matched Cason’s attire in the Ring doorbell footage.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
