PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The same man now accused of first-degree murder in Portsmouth was convicted more than 40 years ago of stabbing a childhood acquaintance, who said a light jail sentence at the time failed to hold that person accountable.
Gregory Coffey, 53, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the death of Gordon Randolph Tillman Jr. in Portsmouth. According to authorities and court records, Tillman’s dismembered and burned body was found in a ditch behind Coffey’s home at 3404 Elliott Avenue following an incident on or about Aug. 30.
That murder charges comes 41 years after Coffey was convicted of stabbing a childhood acquaintance, then-14-year-old Lee Bennett, with a butcher knife in 1985, when Coffey was 12 years old…