A U.S. Navy officer was found guilty of killing his pregnant girlfriend in 2022 after she refused to get an abortion.
On Wednesday, April 23, 27-year-old Emmanuel Coble of Hampton was found guilty in Hanover County Circuit Court on all five charges he faced in the murder of 20-year-old Raquiah King of Hampton, who was shot and killed in July 2022, according to Mackenzie Babichenko, the Hanover County Commonwealth's Attorney.
King was 12 Weeks Pregnant with Coble's Child When She was Found Dead on the Side of the Road with a Gunshot Wound
As previously reported, On July 21, 2022, a deputy with the Hanover County Sheriff's Office was called to the area of Greenwood and Winns Church roads after a caller reported they'd found a body in some brush. The victim, later identified as King, had a single gunshot wound.
Coble and King were in a relationship and King was three months pregnant with his child at the time of her death. Coble, then a junior grade lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, was identified as a suspect and, was charged in connection with her murder on Aug. 18, 2022.
Coble and King were Having 'Domestic Issues' Over Her Pregnancy, He Took Her to an Abortion Clinic But She Refused the Procedure
Court documents obtained by WAVY revealed that, shortly before King was murdered, she and Coble were having "domestic issues" because Coble "did not want to be a father to [her] baby." King's mother, Rachel Pender, said her daughter had told her that "if something was to happen to her, [Coble] was responsible."
The day before her body was found, Coble reportedly took King to an abortion clinic in Virginia Beach. Per court documents, she refused the procedure. Despite Coble telling investigators that he returned home after this and remained there until daybreak, police surveillance tools were able to disprove this. Blood was also found in the trunk of Coble's car.
As said above, Coble was found guilty on all charges, which included first-degree murder, murdering a pregnant woman with the intent to terminate pregnancy, the premeditated killing of the fetus of another, concealing a dead body and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Coble will be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. on July 18, according to Babichenko.
