PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – A Chesapeake man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death of a Portsmouth woman.

Ryan Winfield, 28, made his plea Monday in Portsmouth Circuit Court. The Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office said after the court accepted Winfield’s guilty plea, other charges of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting in committing or attempting a felony, discharging a firearm within or at a building or dwelling house were nolle prossed. Online court records indicate that another charge of first-degree murder was also nolle prossed.

In a summary of facts released by the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, Winfield was at the home of the victim, Auriel McLaurin, with one of McLaurin’s roommates and her infant daughter on Nov. 9, 2021 in the 2100 block of Pearl Street when he and McLaurin got into a fight. That’s when the roommate took the infant into his room to feed her.

After the fight, as Winfield was leaving, he fired three shots through the front door of the house while McLaurin was directly on the side of the door, which was closed and locked when he fired the shots, the summary states. Two of the shots hit McLaurin, and she died as a result of shots to her head and torso, according to the summary.

Police said at the time of the shooting that she died before paramedics could get McLaurin to the hospital, and that Winfield was arrested less than 48 hours later after he had turned himself in.

McLaurin was a mother of six children, all under 10 years old.

Winfield’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10. McLaurin’s mom, Tomeca Nichols, told 10 On Your Side back in November 2021 that Winfield “doesn’t deserve to ever be free again.”

“He does not deserve to walk,” Nichols said. “I don’t care about no hood code or anything. You need to communicate ’cause we need to start saving our lives. We got enough young people dying. They’re supposed to be burying me. My kids are supposed to bury me. … I should not be burying my 27-year-old child.”