Jury convicts alleged Bloods member in 2024 Onley-Area shootings

Pictured: Jaquan Cortez Portier.

By Linda Cicoira

After deliberating for about two and a half hours on Thursday, a 12-member Accomack Circuit Court jury convicted a local Bloods street-gang member of four violent felonies that took place near Onley in 2024.
Thirty-five-year-old Jaquan Cortez Portier, known as Buck, of Dennis Drive in Parksley, could face up to 33 years in prison and be fined up to $300,000 for the crimes. A long-form presentence report was ordered. Portier was remanded to jail.

One of the crimes was the attempted murder of 28-year-old Kyrig Nygee Weathers, known as OG Kane and Rig, a fellow Bloods member from Greenbush, who is in federal custody on suspicion of murder in aid of racketeering, using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and causing death by use of a firearm.

Portier was also convicted Thursday of use of a firearm, maliciously shooting at an occupied vehicle that Weathers was driving, and maliciously shooting at the home of a local woman, who found bullet holes in her wall and in the sock drawer of her dresser the following morning. The incidents occurred on Feb. 10, 2024.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan would not comment on the case. He was “grateful for the service of the jury over the last week,” and he praised sheriff’s deputies and investigators for solving the case.

Defense lawyer Kristin Paulding asked that the jurors be polled. All of the members said they agreed with the verdicts.

A date for another jury trial for Portier has not been set. He will face a charge of possession of a firearm by a violent felon. That allegation was not presented to members of the first jury to avoid prejudicing them.

Weathers and three other gang members are accused in federal court of killing a third comrade just after Portier committed these crimes in the same area on Stumpy Lane. The victim in that case, 27-year-old Rashaun Anthony Brown Jr., was shot to death on Feb. 13, 2024.

In closing arguments, Paulding argued that there was no proof, only speculation that Portier was guilty of wrongdoing. She said lots of people hang out in the area. “We don’t know who was shooting first or who shot back,” the defense lawyer added.

Weathers, who was wearing a jail jumpsuit, was the first witness called by Morgan. He did not cooperate with the prosecution.

“I was on drugs, I don’t recall,” he said. Weathers denied recognizing the bullet-ridden vehicle in question from a photograph and did not know Shania Dickerson, or Ruby Red, who is accused of luring Weathers there so Portier could kill him. After Weathers pleaded the 5th, which stops him from incriminating himself, and asked for his federal lawyer, he was taken away.

Thirty-three-year-old Tyvon Lyncurtis Smith, known as Teddy, Rich Fargo, and Cautious, formerly of Parksley, once publicly called himself “King” of the local Bloods, and has since been labeled the Godfather. He is being held in federal custody on the same charges as Weathers and 34-year-old Christopher Clovis-Weathers Monfiston, known as YB and Twin, of Chesapeake. Twenty-eight-year-old Taquan Lee Bell, also known as Pop Out, Pop Off Rozay, or Tay Rozay, of Parksley, was indicted on a count of being an accessory after the fact by allegedly assisting the others to prevent their apprehension, trial, and punishment.

Witnesses have previously backed away from testifying against gang members by claiming amnesia, disappearing, or not showing up for proceedings.

Portier was once linked to Tyvon Smith in a case of a drive-by shooting at a house in Rolling Acres. A young woman, who said she was riding in the car with Smith and others. could not be found when Smith went to trial. Two others couldn’t recall what happened, and the charges were dropped.

Portier was also once accused of shooting four people at a birthday party, leaving a teenager paralyzed. That case was also thrown out. He assaulted an officer in 2016 and was sentenced to five years in prison for the offense in 2018.

This article was edited to remove an incorrect statement about a cell phone pinging.