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Man sentenced for involvement in fatal Virginia Beach robbery

Posted at 4:31 PM, Aug 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-08 16:36:51-04

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Maurice K. Walters was sentenced Wednesday in Virginia Beach Circuit Court for his involvement in a 2016 fatal robbery that left one man dead.

He was sentenced on charges of conspiracy, malicious wounding and robbery at a residence with a gun. He will serve 14 years with 22 suspended.

In July 2016, Marquel Jordan Leary recruited men including Sean Patterson, a juvenile and Walters to help him get revenge on Frederico Roundtree.

The group planned on stealing Roundtree’s debit card and taking back a gun that belonged to Walters.

Leary and the group decided that Patterson, Walters and the juvenile would go up and smoke marijuana with Roundtree to relax him and scope out the situation. They planned on telling the others to come up to do the robbery.

On the way to Roundtree’s apartment, Leary and Patterson talked to Taiwan Simon, who was in the apartment with Roundtree. Simon told them not to go through with the robbery or be prepared for Simon to use his gun to stop them.

When the group came into the apartment, the people who planned on doing the robbery put on gloves and masks and pulled out guns. Leary told them to leave their cell phones and wallets in the car so they wouldn’t leave evidence behind.

Patterson, Walters and the teen went into the apartment as planned.

On the way up, they passed Simon and two other men. Simon went back into the apartment and told Roundtree he was about to get robbed. As Leary and the other co-defendant were about to go into Roundtree’s apartment with guns drawn, Roundtree came out of the apartment with a revolver. Simon also came outside.

Roundtree and Leary shot at each other. Roundtree was shot in the leg and Leary in the stomach.

Leary fired 11 times, shooting Simon in the head and killing him. Leary fell to the ground in the parking lot. Walters and another co-defendant stayed with him because they were locked out of Leary’s car.

Leary was sentenced to serve 41 years in prison for first degree felony murder, aggravated malicious wounding, attempted robbery, three counts of use of a firearm and conspiracy.

Patterson was sentenced to five years in prison, with four years and 330 days suspended, leaving 35 days to serve. He will be on indefinite supervision upon his release.