PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — More than a year-and-a-half after two men were shot and killed on Dale Drive in Portsmouth, a woman was arrested Tuesday on a pair of first-degree murder charges.
Akea Faison, 33, was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi after law enforcement had been searching for her for 20 months, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service’s Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task force, along with Portsmouth Police and the USMS Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, were able to arrest Faison, who, in addition to the first-degree murder charges, has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Faison, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, was allegedly involved in a March 5, 2023 robbery on Dale Drive in which two men were shot and killed.
Around 7:42 a.m. March 5, 2023, police responded to the 260 block of Dale Drive in reference to a shooting, and when officers arrived, they found two men who had been shot — one who was pronounced dead at the scene and another who was taken to a hospital and later died.
The victims were identified as Carlos Cordova, 28, and Carlos Castro-Murillo, 22.
The U.S. Marshals Service said the case had developed several leads, and investigators learned Faison was working in Jackson, Mississippi under an assumed identity, at which point, Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force investigators requested help of the USMS Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force to find and arrest her.
On Tuesday, investigators set up surveillance on a business in the 100 block of West Northside Drive in Jackson, Mississippi and found Faison working there. They approached her and arrested her without incident, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Faison is being held at the Madison County Detention Center in Mississippi and is awaiting extradition to Virginia for an initial court appearance.