Chesapeake man sentenced to nearly 23 years for fatally stabbing former girlfriend

CHESAPEAKE — A 63-year-old man was sentenced Monday to nearly 23 years in prison for fatally stabbing his former girlfriend.

Anthony Leonard Johnson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at the start of Monday’s hearing in Chesapeake Circuit Court. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, first-degree murder and stabbing charges against Johnson were dismissed, and Judge Marjorie T. Arrington sentenced him to 22 years and 11 months in prison.

The body of Valarie McElroy, 58, was found Nov. 27, 2022, in her apartment near the intersection of Battlefield Boulevard and South Military Highway, according to a statement of facts entered into evidence.

Earlier that day, Johnson had gone to a Chesapeake Food Lion store at which McElroy worked, the statement said. McElroy told co-workers she didn’t want to talk to him. When Johnson refused to leave, a supervisor told him to go or the police would be called.

Later that same day, McElroy was on a video call with a friend when she said she had to get off because Johnson was there, the statement said. After McElroy later failed to pick up a friend as scheduled, and her brother and others were unable to contact her, they called police.

Officers got an apartment manager to let them in after McElroy failed to respond, and had to work their way past furniture and other items blocking her door. Once they got in, they found McElroy lying dead on the floor, and Johnson on a bed covered in blood, with a knife nearby. His wounds were later determined to be self-inflicted and superficial. An autopsy showed that McElroy died from multiple stab wounds.

“It has affected us in a way we’ll never get over,” McElroy’s brother, Rodney Blount, testified Monday. “It was such a senseless crime.”

McElroy’s two daughters, who live out of state, wrote letters to the court about how they’ve suffered since her death. They described their mother, who was both hearing and vision impaired, as someone who “loved big” and had “a heart of pure gold.”

Just a week before she died, McElroy told one daughter that she was ready to leave Virginia because she was afraid of Johnson, and how he wouldn’t stop stalking her.

“She was afraid and I was afraid for her,” daughter Lynthis McElroy wrote. “When I think back to the fear that my mother expressed to me the last time we spoke, I cringe.”

Johnson, who also is hearing impaired, said through a sign language interpreter Monday that he was sorry for what he’d done.

“I really loved Valarie,” Johnson said. “I did not intend to murder her. It just happened.”

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com