Man Sentenced to 30 Years Following Jury Conviction of Murder, Firearm Charges From 2021 Calvert Square Shooting
NORFOLK, Va. — Dequan Tasean Copeland, 31, was sentenced on Friday to serve 30 years in prison for shooting and killing 23-year-old Tracy Eugene Bellamy Jr. after a jury convicted Mr. Copeland of second-degree murder and associated firearm charges earlier this year.
Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Copeland were feuding leading up to Mr. Bellamy’s murder because Mr. Copeland had recently begun dating Mr. Bellamy’s estranged wife, with whom Mr. Bellamy shared a 2-year-old child. On the morning of Feb 2, 2021, Mr. Bellamy visited his wife’s Calvert Square home unannounced and armed. He demanded to take his child with him and argued with Mr. Copeland, who had been sleeping over at the home. After arguing with Mr. Copeland, Mr. Bellamy retrieved his child, walked to his car parked outside the home, and placed the child in the backseat.
Meanwhile, Mr. Copeland retrieved a firearm and stood near the entrance of the home. As Mr. Bellamy was getting into the driver’s seat of his car, Mr. Copeland fired at Mr. Bellamy several times from where he stood, fatally wounding Mr. Bellamy in his torso and hitting the car three times. Mr. Bellamy shot back multiple times, striking no one, and attempted to drive off. Mr. Bellamy began succumbing to his injuries and crashed at a low rate of speed into a parked vehicle blocks away from the home. The child was not injured by the gunfire but was superficially injured in the crash due to not being properly restrained.
Mr. Bellamy’s wife called 911, but Mr. Copeland took the phone and spoke to dispatch in an attempt to blame Mr. Bellamy for his crime. Emergency responders transported Mr. Bellamy to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he died. Mr. Copeland fled the Commonwealth and was taken into custody about a month later in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Mr. Copeland was charged with second-degree murder, using a firearm in the commission of murder, being a felon in possession of a firearm, recklessly discharging a gun resulting in an injury, maliciously shooting into an occupied vehicle, and unlawfully shooting at a vehicle. Mr. Copeland pleaded not guilty to each of his charges (except being a felon in possession of a firearm) and opted to be tried by a jury. On Feb. 21, 2024, a jury found Mr. Copeland guilty as charged. On May 7, Mr. Copeland pleaded guilty to his remaining charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
On Friday, Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. sentenced Mr. Copeland to serve 30 years in prison (with none of that time suspended) and three years of post-release supervision by the Virginia Parole Board, which can impose those three years as active prison time if Mr. Copeland fails to abide by the terms of his supervision. That sentence was above the high end of Mr. Copeland’s advisory sentencing guidelines.
“Mr. Copeland killed Mr. Bellamy in front of Mr. Bellamy’s toddler child,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “The last memory that child will have of her father is of her father dying. Mr. Copeland will not spend most of the rest of his life in prison for robbing that child of her father and for taking Mr. Bellamy away from his loved ones forever. I wish Mr. Bellamy’s family peace and hope that they take comfort in the accountability we have secured today.”
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Anthony J. Comento and Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney K. Scott Miles prosecuted Mr. Copeland’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth, and Norfolk Police Detective Kyle D. Austin led the investigation.
###