20-year-old kills mom and steals dad’s car over rent, VA officials say. He’s sentenced

A 20-year-old man argued with his dad about paying rent, then fatally shot his mom 14 times, Virginia authorities said.

Traivon McNulty, now 23, has been sentenced to serve 35 years in prison, according to a July 24 news release from the Chesapeake Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.

McClatchy News reached out to McNulty’s attorney for comment July 29 but did not immediately receive a response.

The sentence comes just over three years after the death of McNulty’s adoptive mother, 82-year-old Mary McNulty, WVEC reported.

On July 17, 2021, the 20-year-old asked his father to take him to the bank, but they had an argument in the car about McNulty not withdrawing money to pay his mom rent, according to the commonwealth’s attorney, Matthew Hamel.

When they got home, McNulty shot his mom roughly 14 times, then ran outside, knocked down his father and took his car keys, officials said.

He fled to Delaware, where he was arrested two days later, prosecutors said.

“She fixed him three meals a day and washed his clothes and did all of that for $200 a month and that’s nothing,” Mary McNulty’s nephew, Alfonso Ezzell, told WTKR in 2021. “You can’t live nowhere cheaper than that. He’ll find out. The only place he’ll live cheaper than that is where he’s going when they catch him.”

McNulty pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of murder, robbery and shooting in an occupied dwelling, records show.

He was sentenced to 68 years in prison, with 33 years suspended.

Chesapeake is part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area near the southern coast of Virginia.

This story was originally published July 29, 2024 at 5:37 PM with the headline "20-year-old kills mom and steals dad’s car over rent, VA officials say. He’s sentenced."