Inset: Emmanuel Dewayne Coble (Hanover County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Area of Winns Church Road and Greenwood Road (Google Maps).
A Naval Officer from Virginia has been given a prison sentence for killing his 20-year-old pregnant girlfriend after she refused his insistence to terminate her pregnancy, subsequently discarding her body by the roadside.
Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Emmanuel Dewayne Coble, aged 27, received a life sentence on Friday for the 2022 killing of Raquiah Paulette King, according to court documents. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in April.
“The judge took this matter extremely seriously,” stated Hanover County Commonwealth Attorney Mackenzie Babichenko to Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR. “After reviewing all the evidence and considering the impact, he wanted to unequivocally express that this crime was unforgivable and intolerable, ensuring the defendant remains incarcerated indefinitely. I believe that the sentence reflects the severity of the defendant’s brutal and atrocious actions, along with the significant efforts he made to conceal the crime or at least attempt to do so.”
Hanover County Judge John Harris called Coble “an extremely dangerous person” and said he has a “depraved mind,” per the TV station.
As Law&Crime previously reported, King’s brother welcomed the news that jurors convicted her killer.
“To know that that guy thought he was going to get away with it, it just feels good,” said King’s brother, Gregory King, after the verdict, according to WTVR. “It puts icing on the cake.”
King was discovered by Hanover County deputies on July 21, 2022, after they received a call about “the body of a female that was located on the side of the roadway,” the Hanover County Sheriff said in a statement on Aug. 15, 2022. Coble was arrested on Aug. 11, 2022, the statement added.
Before his trial, Coble reportedly went back and forth between attorneys and representing himself, ultimately option for the latter once trial was underway. According to WTVR, he served as his own attorney at trial — selecting the jury, giving an opening statement, and cross-examining several witnesses.
He also claimed that attorneys and police were conspiring against him, WTVR reported.
Even the Hanover County judge was fed up with Coble, reportedly saying that he was trying to manipulate the court — and the jury.
“He used lots of delay tactics, continuances to keep this case going and drew it out so it took a lot to bring this case across the finish line,” Babichenko said after trial, according to WTVR.
Coble admitted that he did shoot King to death, and that he did dump her body in the woods, but that it was an accident.
Prosecutors reportedly said that Coble had brought King to an abortion clinic, but she refused to undergo the procedure, apparently having decided that she wanted to have the baby.
King had reportedly told her mother that if something ever happened to her, Coble was responsible.
“She was a ray of sunlight she was fun, beautiful courageous and strong,” Gregory King said. “I’m just grateful for everything.”
