On a quiet street in Boones Mill, Virginia, the life of 70-year-old Mary Ann Cook, an African American female, was tragically cut short on December 22, 2021. Responding to a call of shots fired in the 6000 block of Bethlehem Road, deputies from the Franklin County Sheriff's Office discovered Cook deceased in her home from an apparent gunshot wound.
The peaceful facade of the community was shattered as investigators quickly identified a suspect who had fled the scene on foot.
The ensuing search led authorities to a nearby convenience store where they located and apprehended the individual. The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Dominic Thomas Novia, Mary Ann Cook's own grandson. Novia was taken into custody and transported to the Franklin County Jail, where he was charged with second-degree murder and held without bond.
The case proceeded to trial, where Dominic Novia was found guilty of second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and two felony counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling. In July 2023, a judge sentenced him to 53 years in prison, with 23 years of active time to serve. Throughout the trial, emotional testimony was heard from Cook's family members, painting a painful picture of the devastating impact of familial violence. While Novia expressed remorse for the situation, he maintained his innocence in his grandmother's death. The jury's verdict and the subsequent sentencing brought a measure of legal closure to a family and community grappling with an unimaginable loss.
