NORFOLK (WAVY) — Honor student. Football star. Convicted multi-murderer and prisoner for the rest of his life. Descriptions of Ziontay Palmer, 22, seem to conflict.
But when it came time to sentence him for killing three women and wounding two others — the victims’ families, the judge and the Commonwealth’s Attorney were all in alignment.
Ziontay Palmer deserved the maximum the law would allow.
Judge Robert Rigney sentenced Palmer to three consecutive life terms for the aggravated murders of Nicole Lovewine, 45, Detra “Dee” Brown, 42 and Sarah Costine, 44.
He also shot his girlfriend and the mother of her unborn daughter, Angel Legrande, 19. Legrande and the baby survived.
Palmer’s attorney, Eric Korslund, told the court that Legrande told Palmer she wanted to raise the girl herself with her mother, and didn’t want Palmer in her life.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Cynthia Collard said Palmer was a monster on Nov. 3, 2021, the day of the shootings, and that his daughter will never know her grandmother, and will only see her father in prison visits.
Costine’s daughter and son said they were relieved with the verdict.
“I’m glad. It’s so much emotion I don’t even know how to get it out,” Siera Elerson said.
With the loss of her mother, she is now raising her younger brother Malachi Costine. He was jumping on a trampoline outside when he heard the shots, ran inside to search for his mother, but she had already been killed.
Rigney said the evidence in the case was “beyond horrific, beyond tragic” and the worst he’s seen in 37 years as a judge and attorney.
Rigney described bodycam video from one of the first responding officers, who scrambled among the victims trying to save them, as “a war zone.”
A jury found Palmer guilty two months ago on a total of 10 charges related to the shooting, including five felony gun charges that carried a mandatory minimum of 23 years in prison.
The mass shooting happened in 2021 at the Young Terrace Apartments in Norfolk.
Palmer was 19 at the time of the shooting, and defense attorney Korslund used his youth to argue for 70 years instead of life in prison.
Rigney was unmoved.
“You did this near homes, with kids nearby. You showed no remorse,” Rigney said, and sentenced Palmer to three consecutive life sentences for the deaths of Lovewine, Brown and Costine, an additional life sentence for the aggravated malicious wounding of Shazelle Dixon, 20 years for the wounding of his pregnant girlfriend Legrande, plus the 23 years for the gun charges.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi said this was the case for life without parole.
“We are different at 39 than we are at 19,” he said, referring to Palmer’s age at the time of the shootings. “And we are different at 59. But some things can’t be fixed. Some things, if you are an adult, you have only one sanction that you can pay. This is the only sanction. Killing three, wounding two. All in broad daylight. All in front of children.”
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