Suspect charged with murder of Destinee Virgin in Columbus gets trial date

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Now that the court system is back up and running, a high profile Columbus murder case is slated to go before a judge and jury in early May.

Two and a half years have passed since the death of 18-year old Destinee Virgin.

She was shot and killed in broad daylight at the busy intersection of Macon Road and Rigdon Road in midtown Columbus.

According to Mechelle Virgin, her daughter would have been 21 years old this year. She planned on enlisting in the Navy before she was killed by someone who claimed to love her. Police say Virgin’s boyfriend at the time, Markel Ervin, is to blame. According to Mechelle Virgin, she’s been waiting to see justice for her daughter and now it could be just over the horizon.

“I’m just ready to get justice for Destinee. It’s been two and a half years. That’s been long enough. Way past due. Two years and six months since my daughter’s been killed. The justice system failed Destinee tremendously. She was kidnapped back in April of 2018. We went to court, we did the proper protocols. We got the paperwork. PTO orders. We did everything we needed to do. I begged the judge that this is a toxic situation, and please help me get this under control with this young man,” Mechelle Virgin explained.

Ervin will get his day in court May 10. District Attorney Mark Jones is confident he can get a conviction in the case.

‘Any sort of decision in the case needs to be based on the evidence, but we feel really confident in the case, and she was just such a nice young lady from everything I’m tracking,” said Jones.

“He is not a productive citizen, he wasn’t doing anything helping the community, he’s out here shooting at cars in traffic when you picked him up for a kidnapping charge on my daughter,” said Mechelle Virgin. “You all let him out a few months later, he was out for a good two months, almost three, and then my daughter ends up dead.”

Mechelle Virgin is now an advocate for domestic violence and has a message for anyone suffering from domestic violence situations.

“If they’re putting their hands on you, they do not love you and you need to get out before it’s too late,” she said. “You need to understand these stories are getting worse and worse by the day. You cannot change them. That’s another thing. You can not change them. If they’re already stuck in their ways and they’re already doing this, they’re going to continue doing this. Each situation gets worse. The beatings get worse. So, please get out before it’s too late. Take it from my daughter’s story and understand that love does not hurt.”

Ervin is facing multiple charges to include kidnapping and the murder of Destinee Virgin.

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