VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to multiple felony charges stemming from a 2023 shooting that damaged several homes and a vehicle in the city’s Bayside area.
According to the Virginia Beach Police Department, officers responded around 9:50 p.m. on April 28, 2023, after a ShotSpotter alert detected gunfire in the 300 block of Harrier Street. When officers arrived, they found multiple shell casings and discovered that three homes and a vehicle had been struck by gunfire. No shooting victims were located at the scene.
The following day, a victim contacted police to report the incident. Investigators recovered a bullet from the victim’s vehicle, and the investigation eventually identified 30-year-old Johnathan Keenan Stephenson of Virginia Beach as the suspect.
On May 12, 2023, officers with the Third Precinct Crime Suppression Squad arrested Stephenson on outstanding warrants and recovered a firearm. Police said ballistic evidence through the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and DNA testing linked the firearm to both Stephenson and the shell casings recovered at the shooting scene.
Stephenson pleaded guilty in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on Feb. 10, 2026, to the following charges:
- Discharging a firearm within city limits
- Reckless handling of a firearm
- Two counts of possession of a firearm by a violent felon
- Attempted malicious wounding
- Two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle
- Two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, second offense
- Use of a firearm in the commission of a felony
- Three counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling
The court sentenced Stephenson to a total of 85 years in prison. All but 13 years and four days were suspended, subject to several conditions, including up to five years of supervised probation, 20 years of good behavior, no contact with the victims, a prohibition on possessing firearms or simulated firearms, and forfeiture of the firearm used in the case to the Virginia Beach Police Department.