On the morning of December 13, 2019, 18-year-old Tayvion Laquan Smith was shot and killed inside his girlfriend’s apartment on Jacob Street in Onancock, Virginia. Deputies responding to a report of shots fired just before 2 a.m. found Smith, known as Tay Man, on the living room floor with a gunshot wound; first responders were unable to save him. Smith had graduated from Arcadia High School in 2019 and worked at Perdue Farms.

The case remained unsolved for several years until a multi-jurisdictional grand jury in May 2023 returned indictments. Eric Bruno Custis Jr., then 26 and from Greenbush, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Custis initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty in March 2024 as part of a plea agreement in which prosecutors agreed to recommend no more than 15 years. Court testimony said Custis had visited the apartment earlier that day when Smith was not there, and that other occupants escaped to a back bedroom when the shooting occurred; the prosecutor suggested others may have been involved. Sentencing for Custis was set for May 2024, pending a presentence report.

If anyone knew Tayvion, who he spent time with, or has information about the night he was killed, please share what is known.