VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — A man who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting another man in Virginia Beach in 2019 has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars.

26-year-old Marquette Treyvon Lee pleaded guilty in October 2021 on several charges including second-degree murder, shooting in an occupied vehicle, use of a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

The charges stem from an incident on February 2019 that resulted in the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Damen Ellington Graham on Chartwell Drive in Virginia Beach.

On Feb. 23, Circuit Court Judge Stephen C. Mahan sentenced Lee to 53 years in prison with 30 years suspended, leaving 23 years to serve.

The other defendants involved in the shooting, Vanessa Johnson and Charles Wilson, both previously pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Wilson was sentenced March 1 to 12 months in prison with no time suspended. Johnson was scheduled for sentencing March 2.

The incident began on the evening of February 19, 2019, at the Chartwell Drive apartment complex in Virginia Beach.

Vanessa Johnson and the victim, Damen Graham Jr., lived in the same complex. 

On the evening of the incident, Johnson and co-defendant Charles Wilson were in separate vehicles when Graham approached Johnson’s vehicle. Wilson told her not to be afraid of Graham then told Graham to walk away. A brief argument transpired between Wilson and Graham, then Wilson and Johnson left together in a vehicle to go to 7-Eleven.

When they returned, Graham was no longer in the parking lot. Johnson briefly went into her apartment and when she returned, Marquette Lee, who was a friend of Wilson, was in the rear driver’s side seat of Wilson’s vehicle. Johnson sat in the driver’s seat with Wilson in the front passenger seat.

As Johnson began to drive off, police Graham approached the vehicle saying, “It’s you! It’s you!” and attempted to open the passenger side front door. 

Lee rolled down the window and told Graham to back up. As Johnson continued to drive, Lee fired three shots, paused briefly, then fired a fourth shot. 

Investigators say a neighbor heard the commotion in the parking lot and saw a hand, with what appeared to be a gun in it, reaching out of the vehicle in the seat Lee was sitting on. The neighbor saw and heard the shots being fired and noted that the fourth shot pointed directly toward Graham. 

Graham was struck in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.