Custis sentenced in 2023 crimes, including murder

By Linda Cicoira

A Greenbush man’s presentence report stated “he regretted all that happened” and “was (only) trying to scare them a bit” when his gunfire blasted a Jacob Street apartment in Onancock in 2019 killing a recent high school graduate.

Twenty-six-year-old Eric Bruno Custis Jr., of Wharton Circle, was sentenced Thursday in Accomack Circuit Court to a total of 15 years of active time in prison for killing 19-year-old Tayvion Laquan “Tay Man” Smith, for the 2023 robbery of the Accomac Shore Stop, and using a gun in the latter crime.

Custis could have received 63 years in prison for those crimes and for using a firearm in the murder. Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr. accepted a plea-bargain agreement between Custis and Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan, which called for lower terms.

Morgan said Custis was robbing businesses to raise money so he could leave the area because he feared retaliation for the death. He is awaiting sentencing on other robbery charges in Northampton County.

Morgan said these terms would give Custis time to reflect on the “callousness” of his actions and “to protect the community.” The prosecutor agreed to the plea bargain because “this case largely relies on witness testimony.”