Norfolk man gets 8 years for killing girlfriend and her mother during domestic dispute

NORFOLK — A Norfolk man was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison for fatally shooting his girlfriend and her mother during a March 2021 dispute in a Huntersville area parking lot.

The sentence was the maximum Kenyatta Jones, 29, could get under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors. Jones initially was charged with two counts of second-degree murder but was allowed to plead to two lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Johnson told Norfolk Circuit Judge David Lannetti her office offered the deal because none of the four eye witnesses identified by police would cooperate, and only one could be located to serve a subpoena. One even threatened to “hunt” Johnson down if forced to testify.

The witnesses — who included Jones’ mother, Sheila Jones — had been somewhat cooperative at first, Johnson said, but then refused to meet with prosecutors or couldn’t be found.

“We believe it was fear (that kept them from cooperating) based on the little bit that we’ve heard,” Johnson told the judge.

“Cases like these are why we need a witness protection program in Virginia,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi said in a statement issued after the hearing. “It pained me to make the plea offer in this case, but without the cooperation of the key eyewitnesses, I had no choice but to authorize a plea that guaranteed that Mr. Jones would go to prison for homicide. The alternative in this case was not a longer sentence; it was very likely to be a dismissal for lack of evidence, and I could not permit Mr. Jones to walk free with no consequences.”

The shooting happened around midnight outside Hunter Square Apartments on Goff Street, where Jones lived with his mother.

Morgan Bazemore, a graduate of Maury High School who was working two jobs at the time of her death, had been in an on-again-off-again relationship with Jones for years, according to prosecutors. In 2018, he was charged with assault and battery after she accused him of hitting her multiple times.

The two got into an argument the night of the shooting, and Jones shot Bazemore twice, once in her right temple and the other in her finger. Her mother, Alicia A. Hereford, a longtime social worker and hotline specialist for Child Protective Services, was struck three times: twice in the back and once in her chest.

Jones fled afterward and was arrested four days later. A gun was found in Bazemore’s purse next to her body, but there was no evidence it had been taken out, according to a statement of facts in the case.

Friday’s hearing was attended by dozens of family and friends of the two victims and the defendant. About a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies stood by to prevent confrontations between the sides.

Hereford’s husband, Harvey Hereford, was among those who testified on behalf of the victims. Hereford said his stepdaughter’s friends told him Jones was angry that night because Bazemore wanted to go to a nightclub.

“That’s the reason for taking two beautiful lives,” he said.

Two other prosecution witnesses told the judge about the close bond the victims had, and how much they were loved by their friends and family. One read a letter written by Marvin Bazemore Sr., Bazemore’s father and Hereford’s ex-husband. The other read a letter by Hereford’s mother — Bazemore’s grandmother.

Both relatives wrote of their frustration with how the case was handled by prosecutors, and their anger and disbelief with the fact that Jones wouldn’t have to serve more than eight years.

“My dreams of walking my daughter down the aisle on her wedding day were stripped of me and I was only able to carry her casket to her final resting place,” Marvin Bazemore wrote in a letter filed with the court. “It’s the state’s job to deliver justice, to do good for survivors, not to add to their pain with the uncertain process of the courts. No murderer should be granted leniency or given unjust plea deals for their ill will.”

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com