A New York man has been sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison for the murders of two men in Newport News in June and July 2014.
According to court documents, Mark Anthony Skeete, a.k.a. Mark Brown, 33, was a member of the Nine Trey Gangsters, an offshoot of the California-based “Bloods” street gang. In June 2014, Skeete came to Virginia to facilitate and profit from the prostitution of adult women in the Richmond area. On June 28, 2014, Skeete and others traveled to Newport News to facilitate and profit from the prostitution of a woman from New York. When a client of the woman was unable to pay, Skeete shot and killed him to maintain his position as part of the Nine Trey enterprise.
After the June 2014 murder, Skeete and others fled to North Carolina. Skeete and others then returned to Newport News and killed another man on July 16, 2014 during a drug transaction. Skeete also robbed the victim of money, drugs, and a cell phone. Shortly thereafter, Skeete returned to Richmond.
On Sept. 17, 2014, Skeete, a previously convicted felon, possessed a firearm in Richmond that was later forensically linked to the Newport News murders. Cartridge casings recovered from the June and July 2014 murder scenes revealed that the same Ruger .45 caliber firearm recovered on Sept. 17, 2014 in Richmond was the weapon used in both of those murders.
Following the two murders in this case, Skeete shot and killed two other individuals in Richmond in September 2014. He was sentenced in state court to 75 years in prison for those murders.