NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Virginia Beach man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after he shot another man in the head and killed him, the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office said.

Marco Hicks, 30, made the plea Monday in Norfolk Circuit Court for the Sept. 4, 2022 shooting of Michael Rivera-Rubert. Judge Joseph C. Lindsey accepted the plea, per a plea agreement. Under the agreement, Lindsey can sentence Hicks to an active sentence of up to 35 years in prison.

As part of the plea agreement, the Commonwealth agreed to dismiss a charge of using a firearm in the commission of a murder.

Hicks is scheduled for sentencing March 15, 2024.

“Marco Hicks walked up and executed his friend for no apparent reason and then blamed his crime on someone else,” said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi in a statement. “Thanks to video camera footage from multiple businesses, the assistance of a Good Samaritan, and high-quality investigation by the Norfolk Police, our case was strong enough that Mr. Hicks chose to plead guilty to first-degree murder rather than face trial. I extend my condolences to Mr. Rivera-Rubert’s family and my appreciation to the citizens and officers who did the hard work to help us hold Mr. Hicks accountable.”

On Sept. 3, 2022, Hicks, Rivera-Rubert and several friends went to a Norfolk nightclub, parking their vehicles in an overflow parking lot at a strip mall in the 800 block of North Military Hwy., according to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office. By around 2 a.m. Sept. 4, the group had returned to the parking lot, with surveillance video showing them chatting, apparently uneventfully, for about 20 minutes, when Hicks went to his pickup, got a pistol, walked up to Rivera-Rubert and put it nearly to his head before shooting him once, killing him nearly instantly.

After the shooting, Hicks and others left the area in two vehicles as a person who heard the gunshot from inside one of the strip mall stores tried to help Rivera-Rubert. Norfolk Police arrived soon after and found Rivera-Rubert dead.

From the police investigation and video from the strip mall and other local businesses, it showed Hicks wearing the same jersey and clothing, and bearing a distinctive tattoo of a rifle inked vertically from the right side of his forehead down his cheek. Police arrested Hicks, who ID’d himself in some of the video, but according to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, claimed “falsely and contrary” to video evidence that another person had killed Rivera-Rubert.

Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Emily A. Woodley prosecuted Hicks’ case, and Norfolk Police investigators Peter Kolb and Kyle Austin led the investigation.