This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
A Prince William County grand jury has indicted a 34-year-old man convicted of murder in the shooting death of his high school girlfriend a decade ago in the ambush-style, murder-for-hire killing of his wife in Dale City earlier this year.
In both cases, the victims were found in their cars with gunshot wounds.
Lionel Melvin Carter III, 34, is accused of orchestrating the Feb. 2 shooting death of 23-year-old Egypt Zapporah Carter, of Burlington, N.C. in the parking lot of the Orchard Mills apartment complex in Dale City, Prince William County police Lt. Jonathan Perok said in a news release.
The grand jury indicted Carter and three other men, including two previously arrested in the case, with aggravated murder and other charges, Perok said.
Police said their investigation revealed Carter hired three men to kill his wife. He allegedly plotted the killing while serving a 30-year sentence at the Sussex State Prison in Waverly for the 2014 murder of his former girlfriend.
“The victim was reportedly lured to the area of Bronson Court and Brickwood Drive … under a ruse to allegedly pick up prescription narcotics for her husband,” Perok said. “Instead, the victim was ambushed and killed.”
The other men indicted Monday include Denzel Scott Wade, 30, and Drew Courtney Buchanan, 27, both of Woodbridge, along with Grorethas Gresean McKinnon Jr., 26, who is also incarcerated by the Virginia Department of Corrections, Perok said. Carter, Wade and McKinnon have all been indicted on charges of aggravated murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting at an occupied vehicle and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Buchanan is charged with aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit a felony, Perok said.
All are in custody. Carter has a prison release date of 2049 on the charges related to the death of his girlfriend in January 2014. It’s unclear how and when he met and married his wife.
In the 2014 case, Carter was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of his high school sweetheart, 19-year-old Kadijah Stewart, in Chesterfield, WWBT 12 in Richmond reported at the time. She was found shot to death in her car in an apartment complex.
