NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Author's note: The video above is on file from November 17, 2021.
A man from New York was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in federal prison today in the Eastern District of Virginia for the murder of two men in Newport News.
The Department of Justice said Mark Anthony Skeete, known as Mark Brown, 33, was a member of Nine Trey Gangsters, a branch of the Bloods street gang.
He came to Virginia in 2014 to take part in a female prostitution operation in Richmond. On June 28, 2014, Skeete and other gang members came to Newport News to arrange a meet-up between a man and a prostitute from New York.
When the man didn't pay for the meet-up, Skeete shot and killed him.
Skeete then went to North Carolina until he returned to Newport News on July 16, 2014, when he killed another man during a drug sale. He also robbed the man of his cell phone, money and other drugs.
In September of that year, police in Richmond discovered that Skeete, who was a previously convicted felon, had a Ruger .45 caliber firearm.
Forensics determined that it was used in the murders of the two men in Newport News.
Skeete was also found to have murdered two other people in Richmond during September of 2014, and he was sentenced to 75 years in prison for those homicides.
Multiple organizations, including the FBI’s Peninsula Safe Streets Task Force and Virginia State Police, were a part of this investigation.