Suffolk man pleads guilty in Norfolk murder
Published 9:52 pm Tuesday, April 12, 2011
A Suffolk man pleaded guilty Monday in Norfolk Circuit Court to the January 2010 murder of a 19-year-old Norfolk man.
Dominic Lorenzo Myrick pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the Jan. 26, 2010, murder of Daquan Hill in Norfolk.
The two were involved in a fight over a “battle rap,” a freestyle rap contest. Myrick said he killed Hill because he “stepped up on me.”
On that day about 2:51 p.m., Norfolk rescue workers responded to 1233 Maltby Ave. to reports of a gunshot victim. They found Hill suffering from one gunshot wound to the abdomen. He was later pronounced dead at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
According to witnesses, Myrick and Hill had planned to battle rap that afternoon. They then began to argue and fight, but were separated three times by another man. After the third time, the two men were standing about 10 to 12 feet apart when Myrick pulled out a handgun and shot Hill, according to a copy of a court document in the case.
While the third man called 911, Myrick left the scene. As he left, four women came out of the home and saw him leaving the scene. He was arrested at his home on Pine Street in Suffolk.
Myrick tried to say that he had been at Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk at the time of the shooting, but cell phone records showed that he had been traveling from the scene of the shooting to Obici at the time. Myrick had arrived at Obici at 3:41 p.m. that day, but a detective took only 23 minutes to drive the route.
Based on the plea agreement, Myrick’s sentence will be limited to 21 years in prison. In addition, the commonwealth did not prosecute a charge of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in exchange for Myrick’s guilty plea.