VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Charged with murder, a teenager faces a judge in Virginia Beach General District Court Friday morning.
Police have linked 19-year-old Maurice Boney, Jr. to the murder of a 60-year-old Virginia Beach woman. Investigators told News 3 the victim, Christine Bender, was shot in front of her Campion Court home early on the morning of December 4, 2016.
Details about what happened that night came out in court when a Virginia Beach detective told the judge about statements that Boney made after being arrested on December 15th.
Detectives said Boney told them he and his friend Nicholas Cates went driving around the morning of December 4th because Cates said he ‘wanted to find someone to kill.’ Boney told detectives they ended up on Campion Court and saw Bender outside her house, smoking.
According to Boney, the men pulled up to Bender and asked her for a lighter. Boney told detectives that he and Cates lit their cigarettes and as Bender was walking back towards her house Cates shot her 5 to 7 times.
Robert Bender, Christine’s husband spoke to the judge about finding his wife in the street, unresponsive.
When officers were called to Bender’s house around 2 a.m., they took her to the hospital but she died as a result of her injuries.
Friends and neighbors told News 3 that Bender was a kindhearted woman who made up a large part of their close-knit community. We spoke to her daughter Elizabeth Stevens who said the two had just returned from a trip overseas,
Boney is charged with murder, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and conspiracy to commit a felony. Two other 17 year old men were arrested in connection to the murder; Nicholas Cates and Angelo Worlds. At the time of this crime they were juveniles, but have turned 18 behind bars.
The case will go to grand jury on March 20th and the trial date is set for May 31st.
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