In the late afternoon of March 19, 2015, the promise of a spring evening in Newport News, Virginia, was shattered by gunfire. At The Reserve at Deer Run, an apartment complex off Jefferson Avenue, 26-year-old Adrian B. Holiday, a male resident of the city, was found shot. The incident unfolded around 4:45 p.m., leaving a community in shock and a family to grapple with a sudden and violent loss.
Holiday, known affectionately as 'A-Boogie,' was discovered in the driver's seat of a white SUV, having sustained a gunshot wound to his back shoulder. Another young man, 23-year-old Jeremy Taylor, was found nearby with multiple gunshot wounds to his abdomen. Both men would succumb to their injuries, Taylor dying shortly after at a local hospital.
Adrian Holiday was a lifelong Newport News resident and a graduate of Denbigh High School. He had served his country for five years in the U.S. Army Reserves, a service that included a tour in Afghanistan. His father would later express the profound irony and pain of his son surviving a war zone only to be killed in his hometown. Remembered for his warm personality, he was engaged to be married and was a cherished son, brother, and friend to many. In the days and weeks following the double homicide, his family and friends mourned a life cut tragically short, a life that had been dedicated to his community and country.
The investigation into the murders of Adrian Holiday and Jeremy Taylor led authorities to a suspect, Tevin Lamall Johnson of Surry, Virginia. A critical piece of evidence emerged from police body camera footage, which captured Jeremy Taylor's dying words, identifying 'Tevin Johnson' as the shooter. Further investigation uncovered Johnson's DNA on a jacket found in the back of the SUV where Holiday was discovered. Cell phone records also placed Johnson at the scene of the crime at the time of the killings. Prosecutors would later argue that the motive for the shooting was a robbery gone wrong.
Tevin Lamall Johnson was arrested and subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. During his trial, Johnson took the stand in his own defense, claiming he had been at the apartment complex to purchase marijuana from Taylor and that he fled after hearing gunshots from an unknown assailant. However, the evidence presented by the prosecution proved compelling to the jury. Johnson was found guilty of the murders of both Adrian Holiday and Jeremy Taylor and was sentenced to two life terms in prison, bringing a measure of justice to the grieving families and the Newport News community.
