ALEXANDRIA, VA — A Virginia state judge on Thursday sentenced Dontae Lashaun Drumgold to 53 years in prison for the 2022 murder of 25-year-old Elijah Williams, court records show.
Drumgold, 28, was convicted in May of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in connection with the deadly shooting.
Authorities said officers responded to a residential building on Raleigh Avenue in Alexandria on March 23, 2022, where they found Williams dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
Drumgold was indicted by a grand jury on May 8, 2023, and has been held without bail at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center.
The firearm charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of three years, while first-degree murder in Virginia can result in life imprisonment without parole.
Drumgold’s conviction closes a nearly two-year investigation into the fatal shooting that shocked the Alexandria community.