In the dark hours of March 23, 2024, a 911 call sent Cheyenne police to the 100 block of King Court, where officers found Cortaevius Marquis “Tae” Williams Sr., a 25-year-old Black male, suffering from a gunshot wound.
Officers rendered aid before medics transported 25-year-old Cortaevius Maquis 'Tae' Williams Sr. to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Later that day, authorities publicly identified the 25-year-old male as Cortaevius Marquis 'Tae'
Williams Sr., fixing the date and place of death while friends and family began sharing obituary notices.
Detectives quickly focused on a suspect from the same south-side neighborhood.
Within hours, they arrested Antonio Navarrete, a 23-year-old male, on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the death of Cortaevius Marquis 'Tae' Williams Sr..
A Laramie County Circuit Court judge soon set bond at $1 million cash, and the case moved into district court, with charging documents noting the early-morning timeline and the King Court address where Cortaevius Williams Sr. was found.
As the investigation unfolded, a probable-cause affidavit offered only spare contours.
It placed the confrontation at the suspect's King Court home and recorded that the 23-year-old male told detectives he and Cortaevius had been friends for years.
Public updates from police and local outlets kept the narrative focused on the scene, the quick arrest, and the transfer of the 23-year-old male to the Laramie County Jail, while the family of Cortaevius Marquis 'Tae' Williams Sr., organized services and memorials.
The legal outcome arrived the following winter.
On February 11, 2025, the 23-year-old male pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in state prison for the killing of 25-year-old Cortaevius Marquia 'Tae' Williams Sr..
News accounts and court summaries emphasized the shift from the initial first-degree murder charge to the manslaughter conviction, closing the criminal case with a defined term of years rather than a trial.
For Cortaevius Marquis 'Tae' Williams Sr., the record that remains traces a short arc from an early-morning shooting in a small cul-de-sac to an arrest, a plea, and a sentence that put the shooter behind bars.
