A Yorktown teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to second degree murder and seven other felonies in connection with the January 2016 shooting of four young people on a Ware Neck roadway.
Dijon Lamour Whitter, 19, pleaded guilty to the murder charge, as well as one count of aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of malicious wounding and four counts of using a firearm while committing a felony. Whitter’s pleas were accepted by Judge Jeffrey W. Shaw in Gloucester Circuit Court and his sentencing has been set for Dec. 11.
In a plea agreement, Gloucester Commonwealth’s Attorney Holly Smith agreed to not seek additional indictments or to amend any of the eight felony charges against Whitter in exchange for his guilty pleas.
In her stipulation of facts, Smith said Whitter and five others, all from the Peninsula area, got together the evening of Jan. 16, 2016 and went to a party in Newport News.
The group left that location and headed to a Ware Neck party, with D’Andre Fosque driving his car, Joshua Morrison in the front passenger seat, and Patrick Williams, two female juveniles and Whitter in the back.
Smith said Whitter became upset when one of the juveniles was not receptive to his advances and the others teased him about it. He pulled out a gun and fired two shots out of the window, shocking and scaring the others who told him to put the gun away.
Smith said when Morrison explicitly told Whitter to put the gun away, Whitter shot Morrison and then Fosque, both in the head. Smith said Whitter then shot Williams in the chest and shot one of the females, grazing her head. The other female escaped and ran to call for help.
Morrison was deceased in Fosque’s vehicle, Smith said, while the three wounded persons got out and started walking. They were picked up by two young men in a pickup truck, and Whitter jumped in the back. The pickup stopped at Nuttall’s Store to await responding ambulances and law enforcement.
Smith said law enforcement found Morrison dead in the front seat of Fosque’s vehicle on Gill Lane in Ware Neck. The other three shooting victims survived, but Smith said Fosque permanently lost hearing in his right ear as a result of being shot.
Whitter was said to be not competent to stand trial during an April hearing, but earlier this month he was found to be competent after undergoing treatment at Central State Hospital.
Shaw said Whitter faces up to 40 years in prison for second degree murder, up to life in prison for aggravated malicious wounding, and up to 20 years in prison for each of the two malicious wounding charges. He faces an additional 18 years in prison for the firearms charges.