Murder trial jury selection continues
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 11, 2017 8:05 AM
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Hill
Jury selection will continue today in the first-degree murder trial of Alquan Hill, who is accused of taking part in the Oct. 31, 2014, murder of then-21-year-old Shanekqua Adriana Thompson.
Hill is allegedly part of a gang known as the "Kinston Six."
Assistant District Attorney Davis Weddle, who is prosecuting Hill, confirmed Monday that two of the five remaining men in the gang have already pleaded guilty to charges against them and are expected to testify against Hill during the trial.
Weddle said that Cequon Aredale Phillips and Joshua M. Collins are on the state's witness list and are expected to testify.
Collins pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or seriously injure, second-degree murder and discharging a firearm into occupied property.
Phillips pleaded guilty to accessory after that fact of second-degree murder.
Weddle said both men will be sentenced at a later date, and could not specify when the two men took a plea deal.
Weddle said both men are in a "secure location."
Also charged in the killing are Rahmel Maurice Phillips, Anthony Graham and Davine Marquis Carr.
Hill is the first of the "Kinston Six" to stand trial.
He is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a firearm into occupied property in conveyance and operation resulting in serious bodily injury, as Deonte Morrison was also struck in his leg and arm by bullets.
Thompson died when the Chrysler Town and Country minivan she was riding in was ambushed by gunfire on Sixth Street and Humphrey Street, causing the van to veer off the road into a wooded area.
Morrison and Thompson were two of four people in the minivan when the shooting happened.
Hill's trial got started around 2:30 p.m. Monday as jury selection for the trial began.
The state settled on 12 people after a series of questions and dismissing one potential juror.
Hill's defense attorneys, Tyrell Clemons and Sherita Gooding, will question the 12 potential jurors beginning at 9:30 a.m. today.
The state has agreed Hill will not face the death penalty if convicted.
The ambush that killed Thompson was one of several acts of violence between the "Kinston Six" and a Goldsboro faction of youth that unfolded over the course of a few weeks leading up to the murder.
In one night, several restaurants were shot into -- including the Waffle House and the McDonald's on Wayne Memorial Drive -- as the "Kinston Six" and the faction of Goldsboro youths chased each other across the city.
Hill's trial is being presided over by Superior Court Judge Jay Hockenbury.
The trial is expected to last four to five days, and could extend into next week.