NORFOLK, Va. – Four Greensboro, North Carolina men were sentenced to life in prison for their role in a murder-for-hire conspiracy that resulted in the death of 59-year-old Norfolk resident, Lillian Bond, on April 19, 2016.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Jaquate Simpson, 39, and Landis Jackson, 39, were the leaders of a long-running criminal enterprise responsible for distributing hundreds of kilograms of cocaine worth millions of dollars into central North Carolina and Virginia’s Hampton Roads region.
On April 13, 2016, a Norfolk-based drug dealer failed to pay over $81,000 for a multi-kilogram delivery of cocaine. Simpson and Jackson’s organization retaliated by hiring a Nine Trey gang member, Kalub Shipman, 36, to kill the next person to exit a house associated with where the Norfolk dealer had been known to frequent.
Shipman initially traveled to Virginia within hours of being offered the murder-for-hire contract with a fellow gang member. They conducted surveillance on the residence and then returned to Greensboro. Shipman then recruited Nelson Evans, 33, to assist in the murder-for-hire, offering him a portion of the $10,000 Shipman would receive upon completion.
Shipman and Evans traveled to Virginia on April 18, 2016. The following morning, at approximately 11:30 a.m., Shipman and Evans entered the Ingleside neighborhood of Norfolk and shot Lillian Bond multiple times as she was taking out the trash on Trice Terrace. Ms. Bond had been an employee of the Children’s Hospital for King’s Daughters for approximately 20 years and was described as a pillar in her community.
After a three-week trial in early 2023, the jury found each defendant guilty of the following charges on March 20, 2023:
Jaquate Simpson, a/k/a ‘Quay,’ ‘J,’ ‘Stacks,’ ‘Predator’:
Continuing criminal enterprise; murder while engaged in continuing criminal enterprise; narcotics conspiracy; murder while engaged in a drug-trafficking offense; distribution of cocaine; use of a firearm resulting in death; conspiracy to commit murder for hire; murder for hire
Landis Jackson, a/k/a ‘Juve,’ ‘Juvie’:
Continuing criminal enterprise; murder while engaged in continuing criminal enterprise; narcotics conspiracy; murder while engaged in a drug-trafficking offense; distribution of cocaine; use of a firearm resulting in death; conspiracy to commit murder for hire; murder for hire
Kalub Shipman, a/k/a ‘Kato,’ ‘Baydo’:
Murder while engaged in a drug-trafficking offense; use of a firearm resulting in death; conspiracy to commit murder for hire; murder for hire; felon in possession of a firearm
Nelson Evans:
Use of a firearm resulting in death; conspiracy to commit murder for hire; murder for hire
The case was investigated by the FBI Norfolk Field Office, Department of Homeland Security, DEA, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, and the Police Departments of Norfolk, Greensboro, Thomasville, Winston-Salem, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, the Sheriff’s Departments of Guilford and Davidson County, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joe DePadilla, John F. Butler, and Kristin G. Bird are prosecuting the case.
This case was investigated as part of four Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operations. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strength of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Related Federal Cases
- Lemonte Green, Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Trafficking Crime, West Virginia 2020 · Massachusetts
- Michael Steven Lambert, Anabolic Steroid Trafficking, Virginia 2022 · Oklahoma
- Marcus Dewayne Smith, Firearm Possession while Distributing Fentanyl, Virginia 2020 · New York
- Chadwick Stanley Ghesquiere, Murder-for-Hire Plot, Norfolk VA, 2016 · North Carolina
- Robert Wayne Haislip, Methamphetamine Trafficking, Virginia 2022 · North Carolina
Key Facts
- State: Virginia
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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