A Roanoke woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison Monday in connection with the first fatal shooting reported by city police in 2023.
Charlotte Renee Saunders, 49, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 64-year-old Michael Douglas Hancock.
Saunders
On Monday, Saunders entered a plea agreement with the commonwealth on two charges. On a second-degree murder charge, she was sentenced to 40 years in prison, suspended after she serves 10, according to court records. On a use of a firearm in the commission of a felony charge, she was sentenced to three years, the mandatory minimum for that charge in Virginia.
People are also reading…
Once released, Saunders will be placed on supervised probation for another five years. Saunders was also ordered to have no contact with members of Hancock’s family, according to an assistant prosecutor.
Hancock was found dead in his home by police responding to a possible homicide at about 9:40 p.m. Jan. 8, 2023, in the 800 block of 30th Street Northwest, according to police reports.
Saunders was arrested a few days later, according to court records. She and Hancock had been in a dating relationship, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Alyssa Gilbert said in an email Tuesday.
As Roanoke police detectives investigated the incident, Gilbert said, they found that Saunders had been living with Hancock in his home on 30th Street. Their relationship had spanned several months.
During an interview with a detective Jan. 15, Saunders “confessed to shooting Mr. Hancock and leaving his body in the residence,” Gilbert said.
Saunders alleged during her interview “that she had been subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the decedent and this abuse was the reason she had killed him,” Gilbert said.
Saunders’ age and the possibility of her being released on geriatric parole were factors that city prosecutors considered when contemplating her plea agreement, Gilbert said.
Virginia code permits any person who is serving a sentence for a felony offense, who has reached the age of 60 or older and who has served at least 10 years of the sentence imposed to petition the parole board for conditional release, Gilbert said.
Saunders will be 60 in September 2034.
