In the early afternoon of March 3, 2017, a quiet street in District Heights, Maryland, was disturbed by the sound of a crash and the squeal of tires as a car sped away. A man, 46-year-old Nathan Slye Jr., was discovered lying on a front lawn, the victim of a fatal gunshot wound. First responders were called to the scene on Great Oak Drive, and Slye was quickly transported to a local hospital, but his life could not be saved.
The initial investigation into the death of the Suitland resident left the community searching for answers.
The Prince George's County Police Department's Homicide Unit immediately began to piece together the events that led to the tragic end of Slye's life. Their investigation soon pointed them toward a person of interest, a man who, it would later be revealed, was an acquaintance of the victim. Surveillance footage from a barber shop, taken on the day of the incident, showed Slye in the company of another individual. This individual was identified by authorities as 27-year-old Sedrick Stokes of Temple Hills. The motive, detectives would come to believe, was robbery. Ten days after Nathan Slye Jr.'s death, an arrest was made.
Sedrick Stokes was taken into custody and faced serious charges for his alleged role in the death of Nathan Slye Jr. He was charged with first and second-degree murder. The legal process that followed would culminate in a jury trial in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County. After hearing the evidence presented, the jury found Sedrick Stokes guilty of second-degree murder and the use of a handgun in the commission of a felony. For his crimes, Stokes was sentenced to 30 years of incarceration for the murder conviction, with an additional consecutive sentence of 20 years for the handgun charge, with all but 10 years suspended.
