In the fall of 2012, a family tragedy unfolded in Newport News, Virginia, ending in the violent death of a young man at the hands of his own mother. TeSean Wilkerson, a 24-year-old male, was fatally shot on the evening of November 18, 2012, in the Lochview Drive apartment he shared with his mother, Sonja Adkinson.
That night, Adkinson herself placed a call to 911 at 8:16 p.m., admitting that she had shot her son.
When police arrived at the residence, they discovered Wilkerson in an upstairs bedroom with a gunshot wound to his back. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In the ensuing investigation, Adkinson claimed she had fired the weapon to prevent her son from harming another family member. However, this account was contradicted by statements from several witnesses. The identity of the family member Adkinson alleged she was protecting was not specified in the criminal complaint, though it was noted that Wilkerson had two younger brothers. Friends and co-workers remembered Wilkerson as a large man, standing over six feet tall and weighing around 250 pounds. He had been employed at Crestwood Suites for approximately two years and had recently begun an apprenticeship as a welder. At the time of his death, he was also engaged to be married. The investigation also revealed a history of police responses to the Lochview apartment for domestic disturbances in the months leading up to the fatal shooting.
Initially, Sonja Adkinson was charged with second-degree murder for the death of her son. In a later plea agreement, this charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter. In addition to the manslaughter charge, Adkinson also pleaded guilty to unlawful shooting and discharging a firearm in an occupied building. While there was no agreement on her sentence, she faced a potential prison term of one to ten years.
