Chesapeake man sentenced for stabbing and robbing woman outside her apartment

Yahoo

01-04-2025

CHESAPEAKE — A 22-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to 67 years in prison for attacking and killing a woman as she was trying to get into her truck.
A jury found Raheem Cherry guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, abduction and concealing a dead body at the end of a weeklong trial last year. The maximum he could have received was two life terms plus 15 years.
Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney D.J. Hansen asked Circuit Judge Rufus A. Banks to sentence Cherry to life in prison; defense attorney Diallo Morris requested a term at the lower end of state sentencing guidelines. The guidelines, which recommend a sentence based on the circumstances of the crime and the defendant's background, suggested that Cherry serve between 45 and 76 years.
The slaying happened around 5 a.m. on May 17, 2021, at the Taylor Bend apartment complex in Western Branch. Cherry, who was 19 at the time, lived there.
Laura Miles, 61, a resident of upstate New York who spent weeks at a time in Chesapeake working as a safety supervisor at Craney Island, was attacked as she was stepping into her Ford F150 in the parking lot.
Miles was talking on the phone with her husband, Jack, at the time, and he contacted police after he heard a scream and then a struggle. A short time later, he got texts from his wife's phone that he described as being out of character for her.
Miles' truck was found on the other side of the complex later that day, and her body was discovered in a ditch near the Taylor Bend YMCA. She'd been stabbed 11 times.
Jack Miles testified at the sentencing hearing, and told the judge about the devastating effects of the murder on him and his family, and how he's still haunted by that phone call.
A detective who saw Cherry walking back and forth in the area where the truck was found hours after the murder occurred stopped him for questioning. Cherry became a suspect after fingerprints found on the truck and Miles' phone were determined to have come from him.
Cherry initially denied any involvement, then later told detectives he was 'somewhat' involved. He said he'd smoked marijuana in a car in the parking lot with a man he'd never seen before, and that it was the strange man who attacked Miles. He said the man then forced him at gunpoint to help dump Miles' body, dispose of her belongings and clean the truck.
Cherry testified in his own defense, telling jurors he initially lied to police because he didn't trust them. He also said that he didn't attempt to run away from the strange man, or report what had happened, because he was afraid.
On Tuesday, Cherry turned to Miles' family in the courtroom and continued to deny doing anything to hurt her.
Jane Harper, [e-mail]