Sentencing has been postponed for a Suffolk man who pleaded guilty to killing a Carrsville man he suspected of having an affair with his wife.

Mark Honaker, 75, was arrested and charged last year with fatally shooting 54-year-old Stephen March of Carrsville. He pleaded guilty to the crime on June 24 and was scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 4 for a pre-sentence report, which, according to Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Edwards, was delayed. The new date is Sept. 11, according to the online court docket.

Honaker had initially been charged with first-degree murder, which would have carried a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, but pleaded to the lesser charge of second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of five to 40 years in prison.

An Isle of Wight County sheriff’s deputy responding to a reported cardiac arrest found March dead in his Carrsville home on April 21, 2023, and initially attributed his death to natural causes. According to the criminal complaint against Honaker, it wasn’t until three days later when March’s body was at a funeral home that investigators noticed a gunshot wound under his chin. An April 25 autopsy revealed a second gunshot wound.  

The investigation took Isle of Wight County sheriff’s deputies to the ABC store in the nearby city of Franklin, where March had worked. There, according to the criminal complaint, a manager told deputies that Honaker had been asking questions about March since mid-2022 under the belief that March was sleeping with Honaker’s wife, Tommi Jan, who denied knowing March or ever having been to his house but confirmed to investigators that Mark had suspected an affair.

According to the complaint, deputies obtained from a camera located roughly 2 miles from Stephen’s house an image of a Lexus belonging to Honaker entering Isle of Wight County on Carrsville Highway at 10:35 p.m. on April 20, 2023. The complaint alleges Honaker initially claimed to know March only in passing, but later admitted to knowing where March lived and his suspicions of the alleged affair. 

March’s brother, Brian, last year filed a separate wrongful death lawsuit against Honaker and his wife, which, according to court records, is set for a two-day jury trial starting May 29.