Maryland Man Sentenced in Beating Death of Alexandria Grandfather

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- A Maryland man pleaded guilty Thursday to second degree murder charges in the death of 68-year old Alexandria resident Melaku Abraha, the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney in Alexandria announced.

George Edward McGee, 22, of Capitol Heights, Md., pleaded guilty Thursday to the charge of Murder in the Second Degree with regards to the death of Abraha, who was beaten during a street robbery March 28 and died April 1.

McGee was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison, with 15 years of that sentence suspended for the period of 15 years and conditioned upon his uniform good behavior and his compliance with supervised probation for the period of 10 years after he's released.

Video evidence obtained by Alexandria police and eyewitness testimony established that McGee encountered Abraha at a cash machine in the 400 block of King Street March 28, a little after 9 p.m. The defendant followed the victim, sometimes walking ahead of him, as the victim walked west on King. When the victim turned south onto South Alfred Street, the defendant approached him and punched him, causing the victim to fall to the ground and strike his head, according to authorities.

The defendant then stole the victim's wallet and ran west on Duke, authorities said. McGee ran into the King Street Metro and jumped a turnstile. He took a train to the Capitol Heights Metro station, where he exited the system.

Commonwealth's Attorney Bryan Porter said Thursday: "By all accounts, the victim, Mr. Abraha, was a peaceful and loving person who is dearly missed by his family and friends. I hope that the arrest and guilty plea in this case brings some solace to those that loved him. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this senseless tragedy, and I regret that it is not within my power to truly make this right."

"The evidence establishes that the defendant's intent was to rob Mr. Abraha, not kill him," Porter said. "However, even an unintentional homicide may be punished as murder if the death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant's intentional criminal act. Therefore, the defendant was convicted of murder, not manslaughter."

"I wish to highly commend the outstanding police work that brought this violent felon to justice," Porter said. "The Alexandria Police Department's Criminal Investigations Section was instrumental in making this case. The detectives painstaking investigation allowed them to present my office with a very strong case based primarily on video evidence. I would like to publicly commend by name Detectives Bikeramjit Gill and Ryan Clinch for their professional and dedicated service. I would also like to thank the Metro Transit Police for their assistance in this investigation."

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Cathryn Evans and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Audra O'Brien prosecuted the matter. The defendant is incarcerated in the William G. Truesdale Alexandria Adult Detention Center pending transfer to the Department of Corrections.

PHOTO of McGee courtesy of Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, Alexandria