VIRGINIA BEACH — A teenager who pleaded guilty to his part in the random murders of two people in Virginia Beach last December will spend 50 years in prison.
Nicholas Isaiah Cates, 18, pleaded guilty on July 17 to first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and being an accessory after a murder. Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge James C. Lewis sentenced him to 100 years in prison with 50 years suspended, courts spokeswoman Macie Allen wrote in an email.
The ruling came 10 months after the Dec. 2 murder of Zacarias Aguilar-Ayala. Virginia Beach Homicide Detective K. M. Faneli testified in March that Cates was high on Xanax and marijuana when he picked up his friend — and now co-defendant — Angelo Worlds and drove him to Cardinal Estates.
Almost as soon as they arrived to the 1300 block of Hawk Avenue, Worlds allegedly got out of Cates’ car and shot Aguilar-Ayala who was sitting in a truck, Fenelli testified.
The shot killed him instantly, and Cates went back to his job at Taco Bell, according to a news release from the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
“[Worlds] said, ‘I shot him, I seen him shake,'” Fanelli testified, adding that Worlds was high on Xanax at the time of the shooting. The teenager told police that the drug made him angry.
Both Cates and Worlds were juveniles at the time of the shooting, but have since turned 18.
Two days later, Cates and Maurice Boney Jr. left Cates’ Light Horse Loop home and began driving in search of a person so they could “take a life,” the news release states.
They saw 60-year-old Christine Bender smoking a cigarette outside of her Campion Court home and Cates said “she’s the one.” He approached her and asked to borrow her lighter. When he returned the lighter to her, she began to walk away and Cates shot her several times, the news release states.
The men went back to Cates’ house and they woke up a friend and told him what they did. That was the same friend that Cates confessed Aguilar-Ayala’s murder to, according to the news release.
Boney pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, conspiracy and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony on Aug. 28. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 12.
World is charged with first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated malicious wounding, and four counts of use of a gun in the commission of a felony. He has not gone to trial yet, and is scheduled to appear in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on Oct. 31 for pretrial motions.
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