Viewer discretion is advised. Some may find this content disturbing. This is a documentary I found interesting.
A Richmond jury took less than an hour Thursday to convict Lionel M. Carter III of second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in a murder for the shooting death of a woman in South Richmond on a bitter-cold January night.
The jury recommended a sentence of 33 years in prison.
The prosecution and defense agreed that Carter and the victim, Kadijah Stewart, 19, were involved intimately, even though he was dating another woman and she was dating another man. And no one disputed that Carter and Stewart were sitting together in his mother’s parked car just moments before she was killed by a flurry of gunshots to the head and neck.
The question was: Did Carter fire the shots into Stewart from the driver’s seat, then flee, or did he run away from rival gang members, who then killed her?
The defense suggested Carter and the other man, Tony Midchel, were associated with rival neighborhood gangs from South Richmond. Carter’s attorney, Leonard McCall, argued that one of Carter’s earlier ex-girlfriends was shot by members of the enemy gang, and that Carter fled the car because he was unarmed as the result of his mother throwing out his pistol.
Prosecutors argued that Carter killed Stewart out of jealousy. They pointed to a phone call earlier that night: A witness testified she overheard the call and, in the process, heard Carter threaten to kill Stewart.
“When he couldn’t control her anymore, she paid the ultimate price,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Traci B. Miller argued.
The prosecution’s case was circumstantial and relied heavily on an eavesdropping woman.
The night she died, Stewart was staying at the home of Betty Turner. Stewart was texting and calling both men that night. But her phone was broken, and she could only talk using the speaker function. That meant that Turner could hear both sides of her phone calls.
Turner testified that she hadn’t paid much attention to Stewart’s conversations until she heard one become heated. She recognized the voice as Carter’s, she said, and what she heard him say gave her pause.
“Stop effing playing with me, before I blow your head off,” she heard Carter say, she testified.
On the stand, Carter denied being the man on the other end of that call.
“I never said anything like that,” he said.
After the murder, Carter went to Georgia. Prosecutors said his flight was a sign of guilt. The defense argued it was the natural choice for a street gang member with outstanding felony charges and in line with an already-planned move to the Atlanta area.
Carter also flatly denied killing Stewart.
On the stand, he recounted seeing a car approach, and Stewart getting scared for his safety and urging him to flee. He assumed the vehicle contained members of the rival gang, he said. He thought Stewart would be safe but he would be in danger if the two were discovered, he testified.
He said he ran until he heard gunshots, then hid for a time. He returned to the car to find Stewart slumped over in the seat, he said.
“I was messed up,” he said of his reaction to finding her dead. “I just ran off. I had tears in my eyes.”
He also said he overheard a call in which the other man, Midchel, threatened to “smoke” Stewart after finding out she had been with Carter.
A Richmond detective testified that Midchel was able to provide witnesses to convince him that Midchel was in a recording studio at the time of the shooting.
Carter is set to be formally sentenced Dec. 16 2015.
A Richmond jury took less than an hour Thursday to convict Lionel M. Carter III of second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in a murder for the shooting death of a woman in South Richmond on a bitter-cold January night.
The jury recommended a sentence of 33 years in prison.
The prosecution and defense agreed that Carter and the victim, Kadijah Stewart, 19, were involved intimately, even though he was dating another woman and she was dating another man. And no one disputed that Carter and Stewart were sitting together in his mother’s parked car just moments before she was killed by a flurry of gunshots to the head and neck.
The question was: Did Carter fire the shots into Stewart from the driver’s seat, then flee, or did he run away from rival gang members, who then killed her?
The defense suggested Carter and the other man, Tony Midchel, were associated with rival neighborhood gangs from South Richmond. Carter’s attorney, Leonard McCall, argued that one of Carter’s earlier ex-girlfriends was shot by members of the enemy gang, and that Carter fled the car because he was unarmed as the result of his mother throwing out his pistol.
Prosecutors argued that Carter killed Stewart out of jealousy. They pointed to a phone call earlier that night: A witness testified she overheard the call and, in the process, heard Carter threaten to kill Stewart.
“When he couldn’t control her anymore, she paid the ultimate price,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Traci B. Miller argued.
The prosecution’s case was circumstantial and relied heavily on an eavesdropping woman.
The night she died, Stewart was staying at the home of Betty Turner. Stewart was texting and calling both men that night. But her phone was broken, and she could only talk using the speaker function. That meant that Turner could hear both sides of her phone calls.
Turner testified that she hadn’t paid much attention to Stewart’s conversations until she heard one become heated. She recognized the voice as Carter’s, she said, and what she heard him say gave her pause.
“Stop effing playing with me, before I blow your head off,” she heard Carter say, she testified.
On the stand, Carter denied being the man on the other end of that call.
“I never said anything like that,” he said.
After the murder, Carter went to Georgia. Prosecutors said his flight was a sign of guilt. The defense argued it was the natural choice for a street gang member with outstanding felony charges and in line with an already-planned move to the Atlanta area.
Carter also flatly denied killing Stewart.
On the stand, he recounted seeing a car approach, and Stewart getting scared for his safety and urging him to flee. He assumed the vehicle contained members of the rival gang, he said. He thought Stewart would be safe but he would be in danger if the two were discovered, he testified.
He said he ran until he heard gunshots, then hid for a time. He returned to the car to find Stewart slumped over in the seat, he said.
“I was messed up,” he said of his reaction to finding her dead. “I just ran off. I had tears in my eyes.”
He also said he overheard a call in which the other man, Midchel, threatened to “smoke” Stewart after finding out she had been with Carter.
A Richmond detective testified that Midchel was able to provide witnesses to convince him that Midchel was in a recording studio at the time of the shooting.
Carter is set to be formally sentenced Dec. 16 2015.
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