Arizona man pleads guilty in girlfriend’s fatal shooting in Point Loma parking lot
Joe Bennette Conway, 44, is slated to be sentenced to 18 years to life in prison in the 2018 killing of Octavia Williams, 20.
A man who shot his 20-year-old girlfriend in the head in the parking lot of a Point Loma strip mall pleaded guilty May 19 to second-degree murder.
Joe Bennette Conway, 44, is slated to be sentenced next month to 18 years to life in prison for killing Octavia Williams on Oct. 9, 2018.
Conway and Williams — both of whom were Arizona residents — were at Domino’s Pizza on West Point Loma Boulevard shortly before the shooting.
According to testimony in a preliminary hearing, Conway and Williams entered the restaurant briefly around 10:30 p.m. They didn’t order anything and Williams used the restroom before the couple exited to the parking lot. There, they had a loud and heated argument, witnesses testified.
One witness said he didn’t hear what they were talking about but saw Conway’s arm around Williams, who was trying to move away.
A witness parked across the street from the strip mall said he heard a woman scream “No!” about 10 seconds before a gunshot rang out.
Williams was found lying in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the head. Paramedics took her to a hospital, where she died.
Conway was arrested less than a month later in Tempe, Ariz., where police found a gun with the defendant and the victim’s DNA on it, according to San Diego Police Department homicide Det. Michael Weaver.
A cigarette butt found near the Domino’s Pizza also had Conway’s DNA on it, Weaver said.