A Hampton Roads man was sentenced on Friday for a 2022 murder in Norfolk.
Cola Winborne Beale IV, 33, was sentenced on Friday to serve life plus five years in prison for the 2022 first-degree murder of Downing Dujuan McLean in Norfolk.
Judge Jamilah D. LeCruise sentenced Beale to serve a life sentence for first-degree murder and five years for using a firearm. A Norfolk jury found Beale guilty as charged of first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of murder on May 22, 2024.
The murder happened just after Beale killed two people in Virginia Beach.
For the offenses Beale committed in Virginia Beach in the week prior to McLean’s death, a jury found Beale guilty on March 20, 2024, of two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of those felonies, abduction, killing an animal and two counts of arson. Beale was sentenced for those charges on July 2 to three life terms plus 63 years in prison.
According to court documents, on March 28, 2022, the Norfolk Police special operations team was assisting Virginia Beach Police with executing a search warrant on an apartment at 3044 Sewells Point Road when officers found McLean deceased inside the unit.
During their investigation of two other murders committed in Virginia Beach in the days prior to McLean’s death, detectives developed Beale as a suspect.
Beale was arrested in Hampton on March 30, 2022, and Beale provided a full confession to Norfolk and Virginia Beach investigators to the three murders that he had committed in the week prior to his arrest, according to police.
Beale shot McLean once in his mouth and once in his back and left McLean to die. McLean had been dead for at least two days before his body was discovered by police. Beale said during his confession that he shot McLean because he considered McLean to be a liability, as McLean was knowledgeable of the previous murders Beale committed.
“Justice was served today,” said Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi on Friday following the sentencing. “Mr. Beale murdered multiple people, all family. He said he would have killed again. We have a duty to protect the community, and we did our duty. Our hearts go out to the families who will never get their loved ones back.”
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Published date: May 23, 2024 | 12:04 pm
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Crystal Graham
