Third arrest made in murder
By John Joyce
Published in News on October 23, 2015 1:46 PM
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Sade Oksana Stevens
The Goldsboro Police Department investigation into the Oct. 13 homicide of 32-year-old funeral director Abdullah Ali Whitaker drew to a close Thursday with the arrest of Sade Oksana Stevens, 17, for an open count of murder.
Ms. Stevens is the third teen charged in the murder. Two teenagers, Corey Devon Sutton, 17, and Terrance Lavon Forbes, 18, were charged Oct. 16, each with an open count of murder. All three suspects are being held in the Wayne County Detention Center without bond.
Maj. Anthony Carmon, commander of the police department's Criminal Investigations Division, said the motive for the homicide appears to have been robbery.
Carmon said not all of the suspects were present at the time of the murder, but all three have been charged nonetheless.
"Accomplices get charged the same as the shooter," he said.
Additional charges will be left up to the District Attorney's Office, he added, but a logical assumption is that a case exists for conspiracy charges.
Information provided via Crime Stoppers helped confirm information gathered by the detectives investigating the case, Carmon said. And anyone with information regarding the murder is still encouraged to call in.
"Community cooperation was great, but in this particular case, we used it to corroborate information we already had," he said.
Both male suspects have ties to a local subset of the national street gang known as the Bloods or United Blood Nation. Tattoos and other factors suggest the teens are members of the local set Nine-Trey.
Carmon said the affiliation has not been officially validated according to state criteria and the gang ties were in no way related to the murder.
"It appears to have been a robbery," he said.