NORFOLK, Va. — A two-day trial against convicted killer Cola Beale has ended with a jury finding him guilty of a third murder, this time for the killing of his cousin in Norfolk in 2022.
A Virginia Beach jury previously found Beale guilty of killing his girlfriend and father figure earlier this year. Now he has been found guilty of first-degree murder and guilty of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the killing of his cousin, Downing McLean.
What was initially supposed to be a four-day trial ended with a verdict after just two days. Closing arguments were made on Wednesday morning, which then moved to jury deliberations. The jury returned with the verdict after about 90 minutes of deliberation.
Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi said justice was served.
"Mr. Beale is a profound danger to the public and he will spend, if not the rest of his life, then a substantial majority of the rest of his life in prison," he told 13News Now after Wednesday's verdict.
"Three murders is infinitely worse than one murder, which is itself unimaginably bad," he added.
Fatehi said he offered Beale a plea deal for a first-degree murder charge and life in prison with a sentence that would run concurrently with the sentence a Virginia Beach judge hands down. However, he said Beale declined the offer.
According to investigators in both Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Beale went on a killing spree two years ago in both cities, which included the murder of his cousin.
The prosecution’s main piece of evidence was the interrogation video of Beale confessing to all three murders. He also confessed in multiple media interviews, including with 13News Now.
"Mr. Beale was very violent and he himself said in the interviews he did with local media, that had he not been arrested, he would’ve killed again," Fatehi said.
The jury heard from five witnesses, mainly law enforcement, and saw body camera video of the moment officers found McLean’s body in the Norfolk apartment and photos of gun casings and teeth fragments on the floor of a Norfolk apartment.
In his interview with Norfolk Police, Beale said he shot McLean first in the mouth, then in the back to “make sure he went down.”
Beale’s attorneys did not dispute that Beale killed McLean, but they argued it was not premeditated and asked for a manslaughter conviction instead of first-degree murder. They said based on Beale’s own words, McLean was in some way a part of the other murders.
His attorneys alleged McLean was there when Beale killed his girlfriend, Czavier Hill, and his father figure, Clifton Baxter, in Virginia Beach. They also claimed McLean was drunk and belligerent the night Beale shot him. Beale would later call McLean a “liability” in an interview with police, saying he was talking too much in the apartment with McLean's girlfriend and two roommates.
Fatehi said that while McLean might have been involved in Beale’s crimes, he did not deserve to die.
"It would be dishonest of us, and I think it would be an insult to the jury if we ignored the fact that Mr. McLean had some blame and some criminal exposure in Mr. Beale's crimes. We needed to acknowledge that, but he did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be executed in the middle of the night by Mr. Beale in an effort for Mr. Beale to cover up his own crimes. That’s not how the world works. That's not how the law works," he said.
Beale is set to be sentenced for the two Virginia Beach murders in July and will be sentenced for the Norfolk murder in August.
13News Now asked if Beale wanted to speak with the media after the verdict, but he declined to speak unless he got paid.