On April 18, 2000, 79-year-old Beulah Mae Kaiser was found dead inside her apartment in Newport News, Virginia. She was a widow and was known in her community as a volunteer at the Peninsula Rescue Mission. Her apartment showed signs of a violent struggle and robbery, with personal belongings scattered throughout the residence.

Kaiser had suffered extensive injuries. Medical evidence showed that she had been beaten, stabbed, sexually assaulted, and asphyxiated. Her walking cane had been forced into her mouth with such violence that it broke her jaw, knocked out most of her teeth, injured her tongue, and obstructed her airway. She also suffered a fractured skull, blackened eyes, a broken nose, multiple bruises and lacerations, and stab wounds to her head and neck, including a wound to her jugular vein.

The case remained unsolved for approximately 16 months. Investigators eventually tested saliva from a cigarette butt found in Kaiser’s apartment. That DNA evidence led police to Gary Gaskins, who then led investigators to Kent Jermaine Jackson and Joseph Marquis Dorsett. At the time of the murder, Jackson and Dorsett had been roommates in an apartment directly across the hall from Kaiser.

Jackson was arrested on August 28, 2001. During police questioning, he confessed to participating in the crime. He admitted beating, stabbing, and robbing Kaiser, but denied responsibility for the cane assault. He claimed that Dorsett was the person who forced the cane into Kaiser’s throat and caused the fatal asphyxiation. Dorsett also denied being the principal killer, and both men attempted to shift blame for the most severe injuries.

Jackson was charged with capital murder during the commission of robbery or attempted robbery, along with robbery, statutory burglary, felony stabbing, and object sexual penetration. The prosecution relied on his confession, forensic evidence, and the circumstances linking him and Dorsett to Kaiser’s apartment.

A Newport News jury found Jackson guilty of capital murder. Dorsett was also convicted for his role in the crime but received a 135-year sentence. Jackson was sentenced to death, a result that later became central to his clemency arguments. His attorneys argued that Dorsett was more responsible for the act that caused Kaiser’s death and that Jackson’s death sentence was unfair compared with Dorsett’s term-of-years sentence. Courts rejected those arguments, and Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine declined to grant clemency.

Kent Jermaine Jackson was executed by lethal injection at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia, on July 10, 2008. He was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.