Marquay McCoy, the 20-year-old Grand Rapids resident who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting MSU sophomore Dominique Nolff, was sentenced to between 32 and 48 years in prison today at the Ingham County Circuit Court.
“Mr. McCoy is dangerous, and the only way to protect people from him is for him to be incarcerated,” Judge Clinton Canady III, who handed out the sentence, said.
Although the charges he faced both carried up to life in prison, McCoy appeared collected and indifferent throughout the proceedings and spoke few words, even declining a chance to address the court before the sentence was given.
McCoy had a slew of charges brought against him, initially, but then had them stepped down to second degree murder and one count of armed robbery when he pleaded guilty on March 6.
On the night of Jan. 31, 2014, what began as an armed robbery over medical marijuana and an Apple laptop ended in one student killed and another wounded.
McCoy entered Nolff’s apartment at 220 Cedar Street and sometime after held Nolff and his roomate, hospitality business junior Corbin Holwerda, at gunpoint.
An altercation ensued, with Holwerda placing McCoy in a full nelson and Nolff repeatedly punching the armed robber in the face, according to the Lansing State Journal.
McCoy’s 9mm pistol went off, fatally wounding Nolff and injuring Holwerda.
At the sentencing Nolff’s mother argued McCoy should receive life in prison, saying that she doesn’t want the possibility of her youngest son ever encountering him. To have lost one son, along with her dreams for him, and his ambitions in life, had changed the course of her existence, she said.
“There’s darkness and emptiness that sits in my heart,” she said. “You didn’t just rob (them) that night, you robbed us of so much more. ... We’ll never get back what you stole from us.”
In a previous story in The State News, Nolff, or “D.J.,” was remembered as a selfless optimist, always willing to go out of his way for another and never one to be mad or brought down, friends said.
“He’d give you the clothes off his back if you were in need,” friend and neuroscience senior Herve Nonga said previously.
Nolff valued family, and to those in his circle of friends, he made them feel like close relatives, Nonga, who lived with him freshman year in Butterfield Hall, said.
“He was like a brother to me,” he said. “We had a bond that I felt like couldn’t be broken. I thought we were going to take this friendship into the future. You always expect him to be there.”
The unexpected death drew reaction from many across the MSU community, with many taking to social media to mourn or express condolences and some taking to the streets to show solidarity and support for family and friends.
Two days after his death, members of the Black Student Alliance held a candlelight vigil near his apartment to celebrate his life and help bring closure to those affected by the shooting.
