Gunman Sentenced to 20 Years for Baytops Murder

All but nine years suspended; second man sentenced as accessory

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Tyvone Tyrell Cropper

By Carol Vaughn —

The triggerman in the 2016 fatal shooting of a Horntown man was sentenced Thursday to serve nine years in prison.

Tyvone Tyrell Cropper, 28, aka Tayvon Cropper, of Pocomoke City, Md., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Accomack County Circuit Court after Judge W. Revell Lewis III accepted a plea agreement reducing the charge from first-degree murder and dropping a firearm charge.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 11 years suspended and indefinite probation.

Cropper was one of two men charged in connection with the slaying of Robert Franklin Baytops IV, 22.

Jahad Ariel Triggs, 23, of New Church pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of being an accessory after the fact in a murder.

Jahad Ariel Triggs

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, with all but time served suspended.

Triggs, Cropper and another man, who was not charged, drove from Maryland to Horntown on Feb. 3, 2016, to confront Baytops after having “heated” telephone conversations about money that was owed, according to Accomack County Commonwealth’s Attorney Spencer Morgan.

Cropper was in the front passenger seat and Triggs was in the back seat, Morgan said.

After they arrived at 4212 Fleming Road, Baytops came out of the residence and “an argument ensued,” Morgan said.

Baytops was shot in the chest and the three men drove away, Morgan said.

Baytops made his way to a nearby residence on Raymond Townsend Lane, where he collapsed.

Police officers when they arrived shortly after midnight found “a chaotic scene,” with a crowd gathered and the victim “gasping for breath,” according to Morgan.

Baytops was transported by ambulance to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., where he was pronounced dead.

The driver, who was not charged, later told an Accomack County investigator the three men had driven together to Maryland after the shooting.

Cropper and Triggs were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in February 2016, but they were released in April, after former Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Brenner filed a motion saying the commonwealth’s evidence was not sufficient to secure a conviction at that time.

Triggs later agreed to give an interview and implicated Cropper as the triggerman, according to Morgan.

The driver also observed Triggs with a gun and said at some point that night Triggs gave the gun to Cropper, according to Morgan.

“Cropper did, in fact, use that firearm to kill Mr. Baytops,” Morgan said, noting the gun was never found.

Triggs also said Baytops during the argument had made a disparaging comment about a member of Cropper’s family and “an unnatural act,” according to Morgan.

A grand jury indicted both men in April 2019.

Lewis accepted the plea agreements in both cases, acknowledging that “some disparaging remarks were made” about Cropper’s family member.

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