Mom testifies; then her son's killer gets life plus 3 years

NORFOLK

Jewell Jones has counted the days since her son was murdered.

"Today is 1,125 days my son has been gone," she said Friday in Circuit Court. "Every day that's how I look at it. One more day that he's gone."

Jones testified during the sentencing hearing of Levontae Holley, 20, one of two men convicted of killing 21-year-old Jerome Tyree in October 2005.

Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. sentenced Holley to life plus three years for his convictions on murder and weapons charges.

A jury convicted Holley in July. He was a juvenile at the time of the killing, so his sentence was left up to the court.

Holley's sentence matched that of his co-defendant, Brian K. Watson, who was convicted in 2006.

Jones said her son had been studying criminal justice so he could be a juvenile probation officer. Members of his class at ITT Technical Institute attended the sentencing.

He had a baby on the way when he died, Jones said.

She misses him so much she has considered suicide, she said.

Prosecutor Jim Entas said the killing happened because of a neighborhood beef. Tyree was shot repeatedly as he stood near a bus stop on a busy street, Entas said.

Defense lawyer Christopher Zaleski argued that his client had fallen in with the wrong crowd, and looked to an older man as a father figure.

That man encouraged Holley to commit the crime, Zaleski said, saying "You're going to do this, right?"

Holley apologized to Tyree's family and his own, but told Martin that he had not had a fair trial.

"The jury was justified," Martin said. "You and Brian Watson lured Jerome Tyree into Calvert Park and gunned him down in cold blood. You turned a busy thoroughfare into the OK Corral."

Michelle Washington, (757) 446-2287, michelle. washington@pilotonline.com