NORFOLK, Va. — Four men were convicted by a federal jury Monday in a 2016 murder-for-hire cold case in Norfolk.
And the FBI says their conviction should be a clear warning to other organized drug dealers operating in Hampton Roads.
"It's a long time coming for justice to finally be reached," Brian Dugan said, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Norfolk Field Office.
Dugan has paid close attention to the 2016 murder of Lillian Bond, who was shot and killed while taking the trash out in her Ingleside neighborhood in April 2016.
“Murder in support of a drug conspiracy is one of the worst of the worst we have out there," Special Agent Dugan said.
The feds helped tie the leaders of a long-running drug trafficking organization in North Carolina to Bond's murder in Norfolk.
As a result, Jaquate Simpson, Landis Jackson, Kalub Shipman and Nelson Evans could now spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Special Agent Dugan said the foursome's punishment should send a loud message to other drug traffickers in Hampton Roads.
“The potential life sentences that these guys are looking at hopefully will send a message to others that seeking retribution, vengeance, upholding your organization’s reputation is not worth it, if you’re going to go away potentially for life," Dugan said.
Prosecutors say the trouble began when a Norfolk drug dealer failed to pay more than $81,000 for kilos of cocaine.
In retaliation, Simpson and Jackson hired Shipman and Evans to kill the next person to leave a Norfolk home associated with the dealer.
That next person happened to be Lillian Bond, an innocent 59-year-old woman described as a pillar in her community.
“The fact they killed Ms. Bond in cold blood just to kind of secure their reputation within the drug enterprise and the drug-using and distribution society it doesn’t hold water," Dugan said.
Norfolk police told 13News Now that the Bond cold case was solved by the "unwavering dedication and teamwork" of nearly a dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Even the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel played a role in bringing this case to a close.
"Anybody that has a part in looking at a certain organization, that has gathered evidence, that has taken a look at the criminal actors that we're looking at, they all have a seat at the table and we're all as a team presenting the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office," Dugan explained.
A federal district judge still has to sentence the four men who were convicted Monday. All of them face mandatory life sentences.
The Bond case was investigated as part of four Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces which identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation's illegal drug supply, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.