Jury convicts Alquan Hill in 2014 murder of mother of three
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on April 21, 2017 2:11 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Renéé Thompson, right, embraces friends and family after Alquan Hill, the man on trial for killing her daughter, was convicted of first-degree murder on Friday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Renéé Thompson, mother of murder victim Shanekqua Thompson, and other members of the family listen as jurors are poled one by one convicting Alquan Hill of first-degree murder Friday.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Alquan Hill listens to Judge Jay Hockenbury after being convicted of the first-degree murder of Shanekqua Thompson in October of 2014 on Friday.
Update ---- 2:42 p.m.
Alquan De-Shawn Hill will serve life in prison without parole after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in Wayne County Superior Court today.
Hill was also convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in operation.
On those charges, he was sentenced to an additional 92 to 123 months in prison.
The jury deliberated for under an hour before convicting Hill on all charges.
Hill was convicted for his part in the Oct. 31, 2014 murder of 21-year-old Shanekqua Adriana Thompson.
Thompson died after eight men -- identified through testimony as Hill, Cequon Phillips, Rahmel Phillips, Davine Carr, Anthony Graham, Joshua Collins and two men known only as "Spazz" and "First 48" -- allegedly chased down a van she was in and shot into it nearly 50 times.
Cequon Phillips and Collins have already taken plea deals, but the other men have neither stood trial nor pleaded to anything yet. Two of the men -- "Spazz" and "First 48" -- have never been arrested or identified.
Phillips, 25, pleaded guilty on Jan. 5, 2017, to accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, and faces 58 to 82 months in prison at sentencing.
Collins, 26, pleaded guilty on March 8, 2016, to second-degree murder, 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.
He faces 221 to 278 months at sentencing.
Friday's unanimous verdict marked the end of a two-week-long trial in which more than 200 pieces of evidence were introduced.
Testimony given throughout the trial painted a vivid-enough picture of what happened the night of the fatal shooting for the jury to convict.
Inside the van with Thompson were Quentin Jackson, Robert Cole and Deonte Morrison.
Thompson was shot three times and died at the scene.
One bullet hit her right shoulder, entered her chest, ripped through her lung and lodged itself in her heart.
Another hit her right side, tearing through her torso before stopping on her left side.
A third hit her left side and damaged her kidney.
Morrison was also shot three times, but survived, which s why Hill was charged and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
The eight men all met up in Kinston before coming to Goldsboro in the early morning hours of Oct. 31, 2014.
Testimony given during the trial showed Collins drove a Ford Expedition with three men inside, and Hill was driving a Honda Accord.
According to testimony, the men came to Goldsboro that night looking for retaliation against several other men who had allegedly shot into Graham's car days earlier.
They found the van they thought the alleged shooters were in at McDonald's on Wayne Memorial Drive.
They then followed it out, down Wayne Memorial Drive, turning in behind it onto Sixth Street before five of the men opened fire on the van, testimony showed.
The van then crashed into a tree line where Sixth Street intersects with Humphrey Street, and the men slowed down and continued shooting.
Testimony and video evidence then showed Hill speed off with three of the other men in his car, but the Expedition stopped, and three of the men inside got out and continued to shoot into the van before driving away from the scene.
After Hill was sentenced, Denise Thompson -- Shanekqua Thompson's aunt -- spoke to the court and directly to Hill on behalf of the family.
She called the night of Shanekqua's murder a "nightmare," and said it destroyed the family.
Then, she turned directly to Hill, speaking to him before he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.
"You took something precious from us and her kids," Thompson said. "And now we've got to try and find some way to repair ourselves without her, and we just don't know how."
Initial report ----
Alquan De-shawn Hill, one of the alleged "Kinston Six" and the first to be tried in the 2014 murder of 21-year-old Shanekqua Adriana Thompson, was found guilty of first-degree murder and accompanying charges in Wayne County Superior Court today.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.