VIRGINIA BEACH — A man who killed three people and a dog, and set fire to a home and car during a dayslong crime spree in March 2022 was sentenced Tuesday to three life sentences plus 63 years.
The term was the maximum that Cola Beale IV could receive under Virginia law. Two of the life sentences are without parole, according to a spokeswoman for the commonwealth’s attorney’s office.
Tuesday’s sentence was for murder, arson and other charges relating to the slayings of Beale’s girlfriend and a man who was like a father to him. Those crimes all occurred in Virginia Beach.
Beale, 33, also has a murder conviction in Norfolk that he’s awaiting sentencing on. In that case, he was found guilty of fatally shooting his cousin five days after the Virginia Beach murders.
Beale’s crime spree began March 22, when he shot girlfriend Czavi’er Hill during an argument at her Baccalaureate Drive home. Her body was found two days later when firefighters responded to a blaze at her house that Beale had started. Her dog, Prince, was found dead in his crate, and her burned car was discovered a short distance from her home.
The day after Hill’s body was found, police discovered the body of Clifton Baxter, 73, in his home. Baxter — a Vietnam veteran suffering from late-stage cancer — was shot in the head as he slept on a living room sofa. Beale fled with a safe from the house that had thousands of dollars in it, and numerous guns. He shot his cousin, Downing McLean, 32, during an argument at a Norfolk apartment five days later.
Beale was arrested in Hampton a few days after that. He gave interviews to The Virginian-Pilot and other local media outlets from jail, during which he said he felt no remorse and probably would have killed more people if he hadn’t been arrested.
In a taped interview at the Virginia Beach police headquarters, Beale told detectives he was upset over a variety of things, including losing his restaurant job, being convicted of a sex crime he said he didn’t commit and problems with his probation in another case.
He said he also was angry about Hill’s parents interfering in their relationship. The couple had questioned his intentions with their daughter and were bothered that he didn’t have a job, he said. Beale told detectives that McLean knew about many of his crimes and had become a liability to him.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
