A naval officer in Virginia was sent to jail for killing his pregnant girlfriend of 20 years when she refused to have an abortion, and then throwing her body on the side of the road.
Court records show that Navy Lt. Junior Grade Emmanuel Dewayne Coble, 27, was given a life term on Friday for the murder of Raquiah Paulette King in 2022. In April, he was found guilty of first-degree murder.
“I think the judge really cared about this case,” said Mackenzie Babichenko, the Commonwealth Attorney for Hanover County. He heard all the proof and the effects, and he wanted to make it clear that this was not okay and that the defendant would spend the rest of his life in prison. I think that the criminal earned every year in prison because of how violent and horrible his actions were and how hard he worked to hide them or at least try to hide them.
The TV station said that Hanover County Judge John Harris called Coble “an extremely dangerous person” and said that he has a “depraved mind.”
As was already said, King’s brother was happy to hear that her killer had been found guilty.
Greg King, King’s brother, said after the decision, “It just feels good to know that that guy thought he was going to get away with it.” “It puts icing on the cake.”
Hanover County officers found King on July 21, 2022, after getting a call about “the body of a female that was located on the side of the roadway,” the Hanover County Sheriff said in a statement on August 15, 2022. It was said that Coble was caught on August 11, 2022.
Coble apparently went back and forth between hiring an attorney and representing himself before his trial. He finally chose to represent himself, and once the trial started, he chose the jury, gave the opening statement, and questioned several witnesses.
He also said that lawyers and the cops were working together to hurt him.
The judge in Hanover County was so fed up with Coble that he allegedly told the court and the jury that he was trying to trick them.
“He used lots of delay tactics, continuances to keep this case going and drew it out so it took a lot to bring this case across the finish line,” Babichenko said at trial.
King was killed by Coble’s gun, and her body was found in the woods, but he said it was an accident.
Prosecutors said that Coble took King to an abortion clinic, but she refused to have the procedure done because she had obviously decided she wanted to have the baby.
King was said to have told her mother that Coble was to blame if anything happened to her.
Gregory King said, “She was a ray of sunshine. She was fun, beautiful, brave, and strong.” “I’m just grateful for everything.”
