Springfield Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For Fatal Shooting Of Next-Door Neighbor

SPRINGFIELD, VA — A Springfield man convicted of first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the fatal shooting of his neighbor was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Michael Hetle, 55, has been held without bond since March 2020 for the fatal shooting of Javon Prather, 24, which happened in the 7700 block of Bedstraw Court in Springfield.

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows said Friday that he handed down the prison sentence because Hetle had displayed little remorse and because of the callousness of the killing of Prather, The Washington Post reported.

Last October, Hetle, a former NASA employee, was found guilty of shooting Prather seven times. The shooting was captured by a Ring doorbell camera. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Prather.

At his trial, Hetle argued he feared for his life when Prather, who served in the Maryland National Guard, was knocking on the door of his home in the early evening of March 3, 2020.

But Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano argued Hetle's actions were “not self-defense."

Hetle and Prather had a long-running dispute, with Hetle calling the police about Prather’s barking dogs and loud music.

Video from the Ring doorbell camera, played during the trial, showed Prather walking from his townhome to Hetle’s front door. When Hetle opened the front door, he began firing, WTOP reported.

At his trial, Hetle said Prather had threatened him several times and that he believed Prather was armed with a small gun in his pocket when he knocked on his door on March 3, 2020.

“The video from the defendant’s front porch showed jurors what it actually looked like when the defendant opened fire on Javon,” wrote assistant commonwealth’s attorneys Joseph Martin and Lyle Burnham, in their sentencing memo.

“They saw the defendant go after Javon and continue to fire. They saw Javon crumple to the ground as a bullet struck his spine. They saw the defendant take aim at Javon on the ground and fire one more round into Javon’s body,” the memo said.

Descano said that evidence revealed “racial animus was a contributing factor” in Hetle’s shooting of Prather. Hetle’s lawyers disputed this claim.

“While this outcome won’t bring Javon back, I hope the Prather family takes some degree of comfort in the fact that Mr. Hetle received a sentence commensurate with the seriousness of the crime he committed,” Descano said in a statement Friday about Hetle's prison sentence.

At the time of his arrest, Hetle worked at NASA headquarters in D.C. in the agency’s Enterprise Protection Program.

Prior to moving to Northern Virginia, Hetle was a police officer in the Bellvue, Washington, police department in the early 2000s. He was involved in two fatal shootings, which were deemed justified, according to WTOP.