Devon Wade Coates, 24, was killed in his Yorktown apartment in the early morning hours of June 24, 2013. He had been at home in the Yorktown Square apartments with his wife and a friend when a noise at their screen door prompted him to go investigate. The friend later saw a struggle in the doorway between Coates and a man wearing a bullet-proof vest; a gunshot followed and Coates was struck just below the heart and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office identified 28-year-old William E. Burks of Yorktown as a suspect and arrested him. Investigators recovered a bullet-proof vest and a .380 handgun wrapped in a red rag near the complex; forensic testing tied that gun to the fatal shot and Burks’ DNA was found on the rag. Reports indicate Burks had been asking where he could commit a robbery earlier that evening, and allegedly told someone afterward he had just shot the white boy. Witnesses suggested a second person may have been involved, but Burks was the only person arrested.

Burks initially pleaded not guilty but later pleaded guilty; his defense at one point was that the gun discharged accidentally during a struggle intended to be a robbery. He apologized to the family before sentencing and was given a 40-year prison term in May 2016. Does anyone have information about the events that night or about other potential witnesses?