NEWPORT NEWS — A woman pleaded guilty Monday in the execution-style killing of a teenage girl to block her from testifying in a Norfolk sexual assault case.
Dazha L. Feaster, 22, of Chesapeake, was one of three people who abducted 17-year-old Asia Cowell from a Norfolk apartment on Sept. 7, 2020.
They bound Cowell’s mouth with duct tape, blindfolded her, tied up her hands and legs, forced her into a plastic bin at gunpoint and carried her into an SUV, according to court documents.
Feaster, then 17, and Crystal Albritton, 30, drove Cowell across the water to Newport News, where Albritton ordered Cowell to walk about 60 yards into a small wooded area north of Fort Eustis.
She then ordered Cowell to her knees.
Cowell pleaded for her life, telling Feaster — then holding the gun to her head — that “she didn’t have to do it and she wouldn’t go tell anybody,” court documents said.
“I just want to go home,” Cowell told the women.
When Feaster hesitated, Albritton eventually grabbed the gun and shot Cowell in the back of the head, killing her instantly.
Three weeks later — on Sept. 22, 2020 — a tourist came across Cowell’s body behind a commercial building containing a strip joint, a laundromat and a bar in the 16900 block of Warwick Boulevard.
They wanted to keep her from testifying against her former boyfriend — Feaster’s brother — in a Norfolk sexual assault case, according to a statement of facts filed in the case.
Norfolk prosecutors were forced to drop the rape and sodomy charges against that man, Desean Lavell Corum, because Cowell was dead.
Albritton, now 34, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder earlier this year and was sentenced in August to life in prison.
Her husband, Devin Aris Albritton, now 42 — who helped tie Cowell up and force her into his wife’s SUV — also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He was sentenced in September to 39 years to serve.
Feaster, now 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Monday. Several other charges against her — conspiracy to commit murder, abduction, using a firearm in a felony and obstruction of justice — were dropped as part of a plea agreement.
Feaster faces up to life in prison when Circuit Court Judge Matthew W. Hoffman sentences her Feb. 7. The plea deal between Newport News prosecutors and the public defender’s office does not limit how much prison time prosecutors will seek.
But at Monday’s hearing, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Travis White told Hoffman that Feaster was “cooperative” after her arrest, and gave “substantial assistance to investigators” in the probe.
According to a statement of facts filed with the court, Cowell went to police with her aunt, Tatina Cowell, in May 2020 to report that her boyfriend had sexually assaulted her at her Norfolk home.
Norfolk police arrested Corum three days later and charged him with multiple counts: Attempted rape, two counts of sodomy, one count of attempted sodomy, two counts of strangling, and abduction with the intent to defile.
On Sept. 6, 2020, three weeks before a scheduled hearing in Corum’s case in Norfolk juvenile court, Crystal Albritton sent Cowell an Instagram message asking how much she charged for doing hair.
Albritton set up an appointment for the next day at Albritton’s home. But court documents said it was a ruse.
Just before 1 p.m. on Sept. 7, Cowell’s aunt dropped her off at the Albritton’s apartment, on West Kenmore Drive in Norfolk, south of Ward’s Corner.
“I’m good,” Cowell texted to her aunt when she got inside.
But as Cowell began doing Albritton’s hair in the living room, Feaster was in a back bedroom, wielding an electrical cord and covering her face with a scarf. The plan was that she’d come out and choke Cowell.
“Any day now,” Albritton texted to Feaster when she didn’t come out immediately.
And when Feaster finally emerged from the bedroom, she startled Cowell.
“Girl! Don’t scare me like that!” Cowell said.
Feaster and Cowell began to struggle, the court documents said. Albritton grabbed Cowell from behind and dragged her into the bedroom.
Devin Albritton came over to help, grabbing Cowell’s arms while Feaster got duct tape from the kitchen and wrapped it around Cowell’s head and mouth.
They took Cowell’s cellphone, with Feaster following Crystal Albritton’s orders to delete several messages on the device.
Devin Albritton tied Cowell’s hands behind her back with a shoe string, then tied her legs up with rope. Crystal Albritton also blindfolded Cowell.
“Asia attempted to cry out for help, but she was only able to make audible groans,” the statement of facts said.
Crystal Albritton pistol whipped Cowell with a Glock 23 handgun and “told her to shut up,” the statement of facts said. “Asia made no further noise.”
Albritton emptied a nearby plastic toy bin and ordered Cowell inside, then covered her over with a blanket when the lid wouldn’t close.
Devin Albritton took a child to his Jeep Cherokee and put her into her car seat as the two women dragged Cowell to the apartment’s front door in the plastic bin. The three of them then carried the bin to the back of Crystal Albritton’s SUV.
She got into the driver’s seat, while Feaster got into a rear seat, monitoring Cowell at gunpoint. Devin Albritton stayed behind in Norfolk.
The women drove 32 miles to Newport News, stopping near the wooded area north of Fort Eustis. They ordered Cowell out of the bin, with Crystal Albritton taking off the teen’s blindfold.
Once they got deeper into the woods, Albritton told her to stop walking. Albritton then “orders Asia to get down on her knees, and then hands the firearm to Dazha,” the statement of facts said.
“What do you want to do?” Albritton asked.
“I don’t know,” Feaster replied.
“Hurry up and shoot,” Albritton said.
As Cowell begged them to spare her life, Albritton grabbed the gun and finished the job, the statement of facts said. Feaster asked Albritton on the way out if Cowell was dead, and she replied: “Don’t know … don’t care.”
They dumped the bin into a Norfolk dumpster on the way home. Later, Devin Albritton dumped the gun near an apartment complex on South Military Highway. He previously had dumped Cowell’s cellphone and other belongings into the Lafayette River.
Tatina Cowell reported her niece missing the same evening.
She told police that Asia was supposed to call her when she was done with the haircutting job, with the plan that Tatina Cowell would pick her up. But when Cowell called her niece wondering where she was after several hours, she wasn’t picking up.
Tatina Cowell confronted the Albrittons and Feaster about Asia Cowell’s whereabouts. Crystal Albritton told her that she wasn’t happy with the haircut, but that she paid Cowell before asking her to leave. She said Cowell left on foot at about 2 p.m.
Then, according to the statement of facts, the Albrittons and Feaster planned a cookout to be held that evening.
The statement of facts said that Corum — who was jailed pending trial at the time of Cowell’s death — was not involved in the plot to kill her and did not know about it before it took place.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com