For Immediate Release: May 9, 2023

On May 8, 2023, the Grand Jury for the City of Alexandria returned an indictment charging Dontae Lashawn Drumgold, a 28-year-old Prince William County resident, with one felony count of First-Degree Murder and one count of Use of a Firearm in Commission of a Felony.

On March 23, 2022, members of the Alexandria Police Department responded to a residential apartment building on Raleigh Avenue, in the City of Alexandria. There they located the victim, 25-year-old Alexandria resident Elijah Williams, deceased. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later determined the cause of death to be a gunshot wound to the head.

The defendant is being held without bail in the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center. First-Degree Murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole. Use of a Firearm in Commission of a Felony requires a three-year mandatory minimum sentence. No trial date has been set in the matter.

Rule 3.6 of the Virginia State Bar's Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys states, in pertinent part: "A lawyer participating in or associated with the… prosecution … of a criminal matter that may be tried to a jury shall not make or participate in making an extrajudicial statement… that the lawyer knows, or should know, will have a substantial likelihood of interfering with the fairness of a trial by jury." Therefore, the Commonwealth is prohibited from discussing the evidence, its trial strategy, or its work product prior to resolution of this case.