Testimony in Prince William County tied the shooting death of Egypt Carter to a wider case against four men, including her imprisoned husband.
WOODBRIDGE, VA — A man charged in the killing of 23-year-old Egypt Carter testified Friday that he was the gunman who shot her in her car, giving jurors a direct account in the aggravated murder trial of another defendant accused of helping arrange the alleged murder-for-hire plot.
The testimony marked one of the clearest courtroom accounts yet in a case that has drawn attention across Northern Virginia because prosecutors say the killing was organized from prison by Carter’s husband, Lionel Melvin Carter III, after she tried to leave him. The defendant now on trial, Grorethas Gresean McKinnon Jr., is accused of helping recruit the shooter and coordinate the ambush. The case remains at a crucial stage because prosecutors are using cooperating witnesses, electronic records and prior plea deals to connect each man to the Feb. 2, 2024, shooting in Woodbridge.
Drew Courtney Buchanan, who has already pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, took the stand and said he was the one who opened fire on Carter after she was lured to the area of Bronson Court and Brickwood Drive. In plain, often grim testimony, Buchanan told jurors he accepted the role after being promised payment and said the plan was presented as a job that needed to be done fast. He described traveling to the neighborhood with Denzel Scott Wade, waiting for Carter to arrive and then shooting into her vehicle. Buchanan’s testimony put the state’s theory into a simple sequence: prison calls and messages led to planning, planning led to an arranged meeting, and the arranged meeting ended with Carter dead in her car. The testimony was among the strongest firsthand evidence yet offered against McKinnon, who has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said Egypt Carter was lured to the neighborhood under the false claim that she was going there to pick up prescription narcotics for her husband. Instead, authorities say, she was ambushed. Carter, of Burlington, North Carolina, was found shot to death inside her Toyota Corolla. Investigators later charged four men: Buchanan, Wade, McKinnon and Lionel Carter, who was already serving a long prison sentence in an unrelated killing. According to prior court records and law enforcement statements, the alleged scheme involved repeated communications among the men, including contacts made while Lionel Carter was incarcerated at Sussex State Prison. Prosecutors say those messages and phone records show McKinnon acted as a middleman between the imprisoned husband and Buchanan, the admitted shooter. McKinnon’s lawyers have challenged that account and argued the government is leaning heavily on witnesses who received favorable plea deals. Some details of the communications network have been described publicly, but jurors still must decide whether the state has proved McKinnon knowingly joined the plot.
The case has stood out in part because of its backstory. Investigators say Lionel Carter arranged his wife’s killing while serving time for the 2014 fatal shooting of a former girlfriend. In that earlier case, the victim also was found in a car with gunshot wounds. Prosecutors say Egypt Carter had been trying to leave the marriage before she was killed and had told others she feared her husband. Her death set off a lengthy investigation that moved slowly in public view. Police first arrested Buchanan and Wade months after the shooting. Later, a grand jury indicted Lionel Carter and McKinnon as authorities expanded the case from a single killing to what they described as a coordinated murder-for-hire conspiracy. The prosecution’s theory depends not only on Buchanan’s admission, but also on whether jurors believe electronic evidence and witness testimony show the killing was ordered, financed and directed by others rather than carried out as an isolated act of violence.
The legal path in the case has already split. Buchanan pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after prosecutors reduced the aggravated murder charge he originally faced, a move that spared him the mandatory life sentence tied to the more serious count and secured his cooperation. Wade also reached a plea agreement that sharply reduced his exposure, with the state treating him as an accessory after the fact rather than pursuing the most serious charges initially filed against him. McKinnon, by contrast, went to trial on counts that include aggravated murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting at an occupied vehicle and conspiracy. Lionel Carter still faces his own prosecution. Court records show McKinnon’s jury trial was scheduled in Prince William County Circuit Court for late March. The trial is expected to focus on how much jurors trust the state’s cooperating witnesses and whether records from phones and prison communications place McKinnon inside the planning rather than on the edges of it. Any verdict in his case would not resolve the charges still pending against Carter.
Friday’s testimony added a human dimension to a case that has often been described through charging papers and procedural filings. Carter’s killing happened in a residential area, and the image that has stayed with many people in the case is a young woman alone in her car, summoned to what prosecutors say was a trap. In earlier hearings and public remarks, relatives described Carter as a promising young woman with a business and plans for the future. In the courtroom, Buchanan’s account appeared to narrow the distance between the planning and the violence itself. By telling jurors, in effect, that he was the triggerman, he gave prosecutors a witness who could speak not only to what happened at the scene but also to how the job was framed before the shooting. The defense is expected to press the point that Buchanan has every reason to shift blame after securing a plea deal. Jurors now must weigh that incentive against the rest of the state’s evidence as the trial continues.
For now, McKinnon remains on trial, Buchanan remains a cooperating witness and the broader prosecution against Lionel Carter is still ahead. The next milestone is the continuation of testimony in Prince William County, where jurors are expected to hear more evidence about planning, communications and who prosecutors say set the killing in motion.
Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.