Norfolk police found $250,000 in murder victim’s car. Her family is fighting to get it back.

NORFOLK — Around midnight on March 12, 2021, Alicia Hereford received a desperate call from her 23-year-old daughter indicating she was a victim of domestic violence.

Hereford “jumped in her car and raced to the scene to protect her,” according to a lawsuit filed by her family in Norfolk Circuit Court. Not long after Hereford arrived, she and her daughter Morgan Bazemore were shot and killed by Bazemore’s boyfriend, Kenyatta Jones.

Police found the women’s bodies outside Hunter Square Apartments on Goff Street, where Jones lived with his mother. Bazemore had been shot in her right temple and finger. Hereford, 52, a retired social worker and manager of an emergency shelter program, had been struck twice in the back and once in the chest. Jones fled in a car, while his mother called 911.

As Norfolk police worked the scene in the hours after the slayings, Detective J.C. Noel searched Hereford’s car for evidence. He found roughly $250,000 in cash in the trunk, and around $2,100 in counterfeit money in the back seat, according to prosecutors.

What happened to the cash has remained a mystery to her family, according to the lawsuit Hereford’s son, Marvin Bazemore, and her husband, Harvey Hereford, filed against the city and police in July 2021 in an effort to get the money turned over to them.

And the biggest question — who will be able to keep the $250,000 — has yet to be decided.

The lawsuit listed Marvin Bazemore, Alicia Hereford’s only surviving child, and Harvey Hereford as co-administrators of her estate. It also claimed the cash in her car was her life savings.

As estate administrators, it’s Marvin Bazemore and Harvey Hereford’s duty to pay the estate’s debts and distribute the proceeds to the proper heirs, the lawsuit said.

“The City of Norfolk, its Police Department and Detective Noel, refuse to advise the existence of the funds, whether the funds are currently being held in evidence, or what, if any, legitimate policing purpose there is in withholding said funds from the Co-Administrators of the decedent’s estate,” the lawsuit said.

Chris Jones, a spokesman for the city of Norfolk, said the money was taken by police as evidence in the murder investigation. It’s been held in the department’s property and evidence unit since then and will remain there until its proper owner is determined, he said.

“The money will be returned to whomever proves to be its rightful owner,” Jones wrote in an email to The Virginian-Pilot. “To date, two separate attorneys from different firms have reached out claiming to represent the estate of Alicia Hereford. Marvin Bazemore and another party, Harvey Hereford, have also come forward to demand the cash. None have shown proof that they are the rightful owners of the money, so that question must be resolved.”

Alicia Hereford’s family withdrew its lawsuit in June 2022, when attorney Clay Macon informed the court they planned to wait until Jones’ criminal case was resolved before taking further action. Marvin Bazemore was the only plaintiff listed at that time and was referred to as administrator of the estate, rather than co-administrator. Macon said Thursday Harvey Hereford resigned as an administrator and that Marvin Bazemore is the only one pursuing the case now.

Harvey Hereford couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. Marvin Bazemore, 25, was arrested in June and is being held without bond in Western Tidewater Regional Jail on multiple charges, including possessing drugs with the intent to sell, carrying a concealed weapon, obstructing justice, and driving recklessly in an attempt to avoid arrest.

While Virginia law allows prosecutors to seek to have money associated with illegal activities — such as drug dealing, gambling, prostitution and money laundering — forfeited to the government, they must be able to prove through “clear and convincing” evidence the funds were tied to a particular crime.

That kind of evidence didn’t exist in this incident, said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi.

“Early in this case we researched whether to file a suit to forfeit the cash under the Virginia forfeiture laws and determined that we had no legal basis to do so,” Fatehi wrote in an email to The Pilot. “Nothing in the investigation could establish to whom the cash belonged or from what it was the proceeds. The criminal case is now over, and we have no further role in determining to whom the Norfolk Police will release the cash.

“That question is for the victims’ estate and the Police Department and their counsel to resolve.”

Kenyatta Jones, now 29, initially was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and using a firearm to commit a felony but was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter after witnesses to the incident refused to cooperate, according to prosecutors. Jones’ defense attorney, James Broccoletti, told the presiding judge about the money discovered in Hereford’s car, and a gun found in Morgan Bazemore’s purse, which he argued was evidence that could be viewed as favorable to his client.

Jones was sentenced last month to eight years in prison. It was the most he could get under the plea deal he reached with prosecutors.

Evidence in criminal cases typically is held by police until they’re concluded, which in this instance was when Jones was sentenced, said Chris Jones. The commonwealth’s attorney’s office notifies the department in writing once that happens, he said.

“At this time, the Commonwealth’s Attorney has advised the case is considered concluded for this evidence, but that does not mean it has directed the release of the evidence or decided to whom the evidence should be released,” Jones wrote in his email. “A case is deemed final 21 days from entry of the sentencing order, in this case July 25. The right to appeal is 30 days. Per the Commonwealth, this particular evidence is not needed for appeal purposes so the earliest it could even potentially be returned is Aug. 16.”

But until the matter of rightful ownership is resolved by the Norfolk City Attorney’s Office, no one will be collecting the funds, Jones said.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com