Lamorris, Seleana, Jared, DaJuan, Lamont, Levires
eman
Hell, where be dey pappies?
You can blame these teens, but you haffs to blame dey mammies, too.
eman
Trial set in teen's death
By ADRIENNE LU, Staff Writer
SMITHFIELD -- Eighteen-year-old Lamorris Chapman of Clayton is set to go on
trial today on a capital murder charge in the drive-by shooting last year of
a 16-year-old Selma girl.
Chapman, of Slate Top Road, is the first defendant to be tried in the July
9, 2000, death of Seleana Nesbitt. Chapman also is charged with the
attempted murder of Brandy Smith of Garner, who was 15 at the time of the
shooting, and with discharging a firearm into occupied property.
The two girls were in a Nissan Sentra on N.C. 39 in Johnston County,
investigators say, when another car drove up from behind and its occupants
began firing.
Jared Clemmons, a co-defendant of Chapman's, pleaded guilty April 10 to
second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious
injury. He has agreed to testify. A judge postponed sentencing Clemmons, 21,
also of Slate Top Road in Clayton, until after he testifies against Chapman
and another co-defendant, DaJuan Jernaine Morgan, 19, if called upon to do
so. Morgan, who is listed as sharing Chapman's address, has not been
scheduled for trial.
Johnston County sheriff's investigators said that hours before the
early-morning shooting, Nesbitt and Smith were at a Zebulon nightclub with
two Selma men, Gregory Lamont Brooks and Levires Donnell Richardson, both
then 23. The four had left the nightclub -- with Brooks driving the Nissan,
Richardson in the front seat and the girls in the back -- and were about 1.5
miles north of N.C. 42 on N.C. 39 when the second car came up. Several shots
were fired into the back window of the Nissan, and both girls were hit.
According to court documents, Morgan made at least three statements to
sheriff's deputies in the days after the shootings, offering differing
accounts of what happened. In one account, according to deputies, Morgan
identified Clemmons and Chapman as the shooters. In another, Morgan said
that he, and not Clemmons, had fired one of the guns.
Morgan's lawyers, George Murphy of Benson and Terry Rose of Smithfield, have
filed motions to suppress the statements, arguing that they were not made
voluntarily and were obtained in violation of Morgan's right to a lawyer.
One of the statements, dated July 14, quotes Morgan as giving this account:
Chapman, Clemmons and Morgan were at a party in Selma when Chapman saw his
girlfriend "ride by the party" in the car of another man, identified as
"Greg."
"Look at Alicia driving that [expletive's] car," Chapman said.
Later that evening, the three men, along with some others, left in a
Cadillac, heading for a nightclub. On the way, Clemmons stopped the car and
pulled a gun from under his seat, while Chapman pulled a rifle out of the
trunk. Chapman then "put the guns in the edge of the woods" and the group
went on to the nightclub, arriving about 12:45 a.m.
The group danced and drank at the club until closing time. As they were
leaving, they spotted "Greg's" car. Chapman said, "I'm gonna get him, I'm
gonna get him" and the group returned to the woods and picked up the guns,
then headed back to the club.
As they were heading back to the club, they met "Greg" leaving. Clemmons
turned the car around and started following "Greg." Clemmons pulled in close
behind "Greg" and turned on bright headlights, and Chapman leaned out the
window and started shooting the rifle. Clemmons then fired the handgun.
Clemmons turned onto N.C. 42 heading toward Clayton while the car driven by
"Greg" stayed on N.C. 39.
Deputies, however, say that July 15, Morgan told them he had stuck a gun out
of the window and started shooting but didn't aim at the Nissan
intentionally. Morgan said Clemmons drove the car but did not fire a gun.
Assistant District Attorneys Mike Beam and Dale Stubbs will prosecute the
case. Attorneys Donald E. Harrop Jr. and Vernon Kirkland Stewart, both of
Dunn, were appointed to defend Chapman.
http://www.newsobserver.com/monday/news/Story/827486p-818347c.html