A Winston-Salem man pleaded guilty yesterday for his part in a fatal robbery that netted only a necklace that the victim's mother bought for him at Goodwill Industries.
Courtney Leach, 20, will spend a minimum of 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Leach was 17 at the time he and another man shot Nathaniel "Nate" Samuel Taylor and stole Taylor's necklace.
The other man charged in Taylor's death, Randy Acker, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to life in prison.
Taylor was walking on Alspaugh Drive in March 2007 -- on his way to a store with his younger brother and a female friend -- when a beige Buick with four people inside approached them.
Prosecutor Jennifer Martin said Leach was armed with a 9 mm handgun and that Acker got a stolen rifle from the trunk of the car during the robbery.
Taylor was shot four times. Evidence from the crime scene and the autopsy indicated that Acker did all of the shooting.
The necklace that was taken was costume jewelry, Martin said.
The two people walking with Taylor ran away and were not injured. The other two men in the car were not charged.
Acker is Leach's older cousin. Martin said Leach's mother turned them in to police after the shooting.
Taylor's mother, Frances Davidson, said that her son's death has taken a toll on the family. She said he had one child and another on the way when he was killed.
"He didn't deserve to die over a 50-cent chain," she said.
In a separate case yesterday, Dorothy Footman, 41, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death of James King, who was shot to death in June 2008.
Martin said Footman and King, 62, got into a fight at his home in British Square Apartments on Shattalon Drive. Both had been drinking. Footman told investigators that King had struck her in the face, and proof of the injuries to her face were presented during yesterday's hearing before Judge Catherine C. Eagles of Superior Court.
Martin said that during the fight, Footman grabbed King's revolver and shot him in the face, killing him instantly.
Her attorney, Pete Clary, said that she would have argued self-defense had the case gone to trial, but she agreed to a plea deal to avoid a possible conviction of second-degree murder.
Eagles sentenced Footman to a minimum of more than 10 years nine months for the involuntary-manslaughter charge and at least 20 months for a secondary charge of possession of a firearm by a felon. The sentences will run consecutively.
In a third case, Dewon L. Lowery, 18, of Winston-Salem pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death last year of his uncle, Tyrell Leigh Lowery, 28, of 4143 Ogburn Ave.
At Dewon Lowery's hearing, police Detective Ron Davis testified that Dewon stabbed Tyrell Lowery in his back with a knife during a fight at Dewon's aunt's home on Forest Hill Avenue on Feb. 20, 2009.
Before the fight began,the two argued about Dewon's unruly behavior, Davis said.
Eagles sentenced Lowery to 13 to 16 years in prison.
Dewon Lowery was initially charged with first-degree murder. Martin said that the prosecution accepted Lowery's plea to second-degree because it wanted the Lowery family to avoid the ordeal of a trial.
"This is the worse type of situation because the defendant is a family member," Martin told Eagles.
pgarber@wsjournal.com
727-7327
Journal reporter John Hinton contributed to this report.
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