Alleged Drug Traffickers Charged with Murder-for-Hire in Norfolk

NORFOLK, Va. – Six members of a North Carolina-based drug-trafficking organization were arrested today on charges of the murder-for-hire of Norfolk resident Lillian Bond, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and narcotics conspiracy, murder while engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise, murder while engaged in a drug-trafficking offense, use of a firearm resulting in death, and distribution of cocaine, among other charges. 

According to the indictment unsealed today, the defendants were charged for their roles in a long-running drug conspiracy allegedly led by Jaquate Simpson and based in the Greensboro, North Carolina, area. The indictment alleges that during the conspiracy, a Norfolk-based drug dealer who had been buying cocaine from the conspiracy failed to pay for a multi-kilogram delivery. The indictment alleges that, as payback, Simpson and his right-hand man, Landis Jackson, hired Kalub Shipman and Nelson Evans to murder someone associated with the Norfolk drug dealer, and that on April 19, 2016, Shipman and Evans shot Lillian Bond to death outside her residence on Trice Terrace in Norfolk.

Six of the defendants were arrested in the Greensboro and Charlotte areas today.  The remaining two defendants, Jaquate Simpson and Kalub Shipman, are in state custody and will make their initial appearances in federal court at a later date.

The defendants and charges are listed below:

If convicted, the charged defendants face mandatory minimum sentences ranging from 10 years in prison to life. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation CARDINAL SIN. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Martin Culbreth, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office; Larry D. Boone, Chief of Norfolk Police; Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C.; and Robert Schurmeier, Director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, made the announcement after the indictment was unsealed.

The Greensboro (NC) Police Department and DEA provided assistance with this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph DePadilla, Andrew Bosse, and John F. Butler, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bird, are prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:20-cr-90.

An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.