NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Kenyatta Jones, the man accused of killing 52-year-old Alicia A. Hereford and her daughter, 23-year-old Morgan B. Bazemore, was sentenced to eight years of active time behind bars Friday.
That was the agreed-upon maximum sentence in Jones’ plea deal for two counts of voluntary manslaughter. He signed that deal just days before a jury was to be seated in March.
It seemed no one in the courtroom was happy with the sentence. Every member of the victims’ families that spoke expressed deep frustration with the sentence, Jones’ plea and the commonwealth’s attorney who brokered the deal — Ramin Fatehi.
Jones sat slouched for most of the hearing, disengaged from the emotional eruptions occurring just yards away, often pointed at him. He spoke a single time, when the judge asked if he wanted to make a statement: “No sir.”
Monica Bazemore, aunt of Morgan, gave the first victim impact statement, taking shots at both Jones and the light sentence.
“There are criminals who get more time for drugs,” she told the court.
“They didn’t deserve that,” she said of the killings. “Neither do they deserve the 8-year sentence for that monster.”
She called Jones a boy and a coward, and said it had been fortunate for him that he was as good as he was at running and hiding.
Dehon Mack read a letter from Hereford’s mother, often struggling to fight through tears.
“The mere fact I can’t be there in court shows how this has impacted me,” the letter read.
It expressed how proud she was of her daughter and granddaughter, and how hard it had been to process their senseless deaths.
“There is no day without sadness and no measurement to the depth of my pain.”
“My sentence,” Mack read, “is the only sentence that time will truly be served for… I will serve my life sentence until my heavenly father calls me home and I get to see my babies again.”
Harvey Hereford — Alicia’s husband and Morgan’s father — testified that he’d been lied to until the day before the plea deal was signed and that repeated messages left for Fatehi were never returned, adding to the confusion.
“She served all the way up to her death,” he said of his wife. “The Commonwealth that she served … made no effort to prosecute her murder.”
WAVY spoke to the CA’s office about Hereford’s claims. A spokesperson said that was not the case; they have no record of unreturned messages.
For their part, the prosecutors offered explanations for the deal as well as the sentence in court, telling the judge that all four witnesses who had originally been identified had refused to cooperate or couldn’t be located.
“We believe it was fear, based on what little bit we did get,” the prosecutor said.
A press release from the commonwealth attorney’s office sent after the hearing explained that because the witnesses wouldn’t testify, the evidence they had submitted — including dashcam video of the incident — couldn’t be used in court.
“It was anticipated that Mr. Jones would claim that he knew that one of the victims carried a gun and that he shot the victims in self-defense,” the release added.
In it, Fatehi called for a witness protection program.
“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. This is why we need witnesses to cooperate and resources to help assure their safety. My thoughts remain with the victims’ families as they work through this difficult time.”
Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney
The full sentence handed down by the judge included 10 years of incarceration on each of two counts of voluntary manslaughter, with all but eight of those years suspended. Jones will also have to complete eight years of good behavior as well as an undetermined probationary period.
The judge indicated that the sheriff would consider his time served while awaiting trial, and during it, in determining Jones’ release date.