PVCC student killer convicted

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

2 2 minutes read

The 21-year-old Charlottesville man who pleaded guilty to murdering a Piedmont Virginia Community College student in February of last year was sentenced to the maximum number of years allowed under Virginia law: 43.

Twenty of those years were suspended, however, leaving Raymaqu'a Antonio Nicholas on an active 23-year sentence for the second-degree murder of 20-year-old Nicklous Pendleton and for use of a firearm during the commission of a crime. .

“While no sentence imposed by this Court can bring back the life lost to the Pendleton family,” Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Platania said in a statement released Thursday, “the sentence reflects the seriousness of the crime and its impact on the community.

Nicholas pleaded guilty to both charges on April 1 of this year.

According to evidence presented by Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Nina-Alice Antony in April, including video of the shooting, Pendleton's death was the result of a drug deal gone bad.

On February 22, 2023, Pendleton drove his brother to the Westhaven public housing complex in the 10th & Page neighborhood of Charlottesville to sell marijuana, according to Antony. Pendleton's brother felt so unfamiliar with the complex that he asked Pendleton to accompany him, she told the court.

When Nicholas was approached to make the transaction, he presented a handgun instead of money, according to Antony. Pendleton then tried to flee with her brother in his pickup truck, she said, but as the vehicle began to leave the housing complex, Nicholas shot the driver once. A subsequent crash at the corner of Hardy Drive and Page Street broke the brother's leg, while the single gunshot wound ultimately claimed Pendleton's life later that day at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

A 2021 graduate of Louisa County High School, Pendleton was pursuing a degree in business administration at PVCC.

Dana Cherry was about to become Pendleton's stepmother.

In an open letter after his assassination, Cherry called Pendleton a “bonus son,” praised his thirst for knowledge, and lamented that his death interrupted his formal entry into his family.

Trio of scholarships awarded in memory of murdered PVCC student Nicklous Pendleton

“He was smart, driven, funny and so handsome,” she wrote. “He showed the greatest kindness to children and the greatest respect to the elderly. He was just everything that's good.

Donations in Pendleton’s honor created a new fund at PVCC that awarded its first three scholarships in October.

Nicholas has been held without bail at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail since his arrest.