Jury Convicts Jalen L. Garces of Murder, Using Firearm in 2023 Ocean View Killing of Ali K. Muhammad
NORFOLK, Va. — A jury convicted Jalen La-Shay Garces, 30, on Thursday of second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of murder after he shot and killed 33-year-old Ali Karim Muhammad outside Mr. Muhammad’s residence in June 2023. Mr. Garces was located and arrested by Virginia Beach Police during a traffic stop two days after the fatal shooting, and Norfolk Police were able to develop Mr. Garces as the suspect thanks to images of his vehicle taken by the Flock license plate recognition system, which were corroborated by cellphone data, surveillance footage, and eyewitness statements.
Around 10:10 p.m. on June 29, 2023, Mr. Garces drove to Mr. Muhammad’s apartment complex on 1st Bay Street and parked his car perpendicular to Mr. Muhammad’s car, blocking Mr. Muhammad into his parking spot. Mr. Garces then went inside the apartment complex. Shortly after, Mr. Muhammad came outside to get in his car and go to work when he noticed that his car had been blocked in. A bystander testified at Mr. Garces’s trial that Mr. Muhamad asked him who had parked him in just before the shooting.
Around 10:30 p.m., Mr. Garces came back out to the parking lot, and he encountered Mr. Muhammad while he was talking on the phone with his father, Bilal Muhammad. A witness who had been sitting inside her car across the parking lot at the time testified that she could see two individuals arguing and that they were the only people standing in the lot at the time. Bilal Muhammad testified that he heard Ali Muhammad say over the phone that there was a guy who would not move his car and that he then said to the guy, “Get that gun out of my face.” Bilal Muhammad then heard one gunshot.
The witness who was inside her car testified that she heard the gunshot, she saw a man – later identified as Mr. Garces – get into the driver’s seat of his dark-colored Ford Mustang to drive off, she saw Mr. Muhammad bleeding on the ground, and she called 911. Medics pronounced Mr. Muhammad dead on the scene around 10:45 p.m. A medical examiner testified that Mr. Muhammad died of a contact gunshot to his torso, with the bullet entering his left side and exiting through his back, puncturing his lung and severing his aorta.
Using the Flock license plate recognition system, Norfolk detectives identified a dark-colored Mustang driving northbound through the intersection of Shore Drive and East Little Creek Road before the shooting and southbound through the same intersection after the shooting. The Flock images allowed the detectives to read the license plate number of the Mustang, and they sent out an alert to local law enforcement agencies that the Mustang was involved in the shooting.
Two days later, on July 1, 2023, Virginia Beach Police officers pulled Mr. Garces over in a black Mustang and arrested him on suspicion that he had been driving under the influence. Subsequent to his arrest, the police had the Mustang towed. Based on the Flock images, Norfolk detectives confirmed that the Mustang was a match and seized it for their investigation. The detectives served a search warrant for the data in the Mustang’s infotainment system, which showed that it was driven to and from the crime scene as well as to two stores in the hour before the shooting. Police then retrieved surveillance footage from the entrances of those stores which showed that Mr. Garces was the driver and sole occupant of the Mustang during that time. A search of Mr. Garces’s cellphone data corroborated his locations at those stores and at the crime scene before and during the shooting. A woman who lived at Mr. Muhammad’s apartment complex also testified to having expected a visit from Mr. Garces on the night of the shooting, that she called him shortly after the murder when he did not show up as planned, and that he sounded frantic when he answered.
Based on their investigation, Norfolk Police charged Mr. Garces with second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of murder. Mr. Garces pleaded not guilty to his charges and opted to be tried by a jury. After hearing the evidence in a three-day trial and deliberating for about six hours, the jury convicted Mr. Garces as charged. Judge Devon R. Paige, who presided over the trial, set Mr. Garces’s sentencing hearing on Nov. 7.
“My deepest condolences go out to Mr. and Mrs. Muhammad and to Ali’s entire family for their tragic loss,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “Mr. Garces had no reason to kill Ali and to take him from his family. I was at the scene of this crime, as I am for every homicide in Norfolk, and I have no doubt that the information from the Flock camera system made the difference between an arrest and conviction and an unsolved murder. I express my thanks to the Norfolk Police for their diligence and ingenuity in piecing together cell phone, car, and surveillance data – along with good, old-fashioned police work – to bring Mr. Garces to justice. My office will continue to focus our efforts on cases like these, where people hurt and kill the members of our community.”
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney William S. Maydosz and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Liane Galardi are prosecuting Mr. Garces’s case, and Norfolk Police Detectives Maura A. Flatley and Kyle D. Austin led the investigation.
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