Adelina Shee
Staff writer
LUMBERTON — Two people whom police have been looking for since March 22 in the shooting death of a Fairmont High student are now in the county jail.
Jerod Kutree McNeill, 16, of 154 Glardenias Drive, was arrested late Friday afternoon and was taken to the Robeson County jail to be questioned by authorities, according to Chief Danny Parker, director of Public Safety for Fairmont.
Details, such as when and where McNeill was arrested, were not immediately available.
McNeill’s arrest came after Julius Laverne Rogers, 20, of 2362 Pleasant Hope Road, Fairmont, surrendered to authorities at the magistrate’s office at the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 5:22 p.m. on Thursday.
McNeill and Rogers are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting death of 16-year-old DaQuan Stephens. Rogers is known to dress up as a woman, but was dressed as a man when he surrendered, according to Parker. He is being held without bond.
McNeill, Rogers and Bobby Deshawn Jones, 19, of 2122 Turner Place, Lumberton, had been wanted by lawmen since Stephens was shot and killed on March 22 while playing basketball at Calvin Haggin Park in Fairmont. Jones was arrested by lawmen on Wednesday. He faces the same charges as McNeill and Rogers.
Investigators say the three men followed Stephens to the park in a vehicle. According to lawmen, McNeill approached Stephens on the basketball court, had a conversation with Stephens and fired multiple shots that killed him.
Parker said that Rogers is charged in Cumberland County with common law robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. Rogers, who failed to appear in court in Cumberland County in March, was out on $75,000 bail on those charges, Parker said.
Rogers was cooperative while being questioned, according to Parker. Parker said that police now believe they have a motive in the shooting, but are not ready to make it public.
“We are pretty confident of what took place,” Parker said.
Three other people have previously been charged in the case.
Shinaha Nashae Grissett, 22, of Fairmont, and 23-year-old Natasha Deshaun Owens, of Lumberton, are each charged with murder and conspiracy in Stephens’ death. They are being held at the Robeson County jail without bail.
Nita Rose Burney, 21, is charged with harboring a fugitive after she allegedly allowed Jones to sleep at her home. Burney and Jones have a 2-year-old child.
If we look at this sad scenario in the grand scheme of things, these young men were misguided, and lacked the ambition needed to see life at any other level. If they had the direction, either at home, in school or in the community to strive for greatness they wouldn’t have placed themselves in this position. Well, they would have been less likely to. This is our current culture. Although it is every where, it is festering in Robeson County.
Ill give you a quick example to prove my point. Not long ago, I was standing in line for a hot dog after a youth football game. There were numerous parents and children around me. Two young boys walked to the side of the hot dog truck and started to feel the display bags of chips on the side of the truck. When I told the boy he needed to order the bags, he informed me he knew that. I then asked why he was feeling the chips. He answered; “I was going to steal them.” If that wasn’t bad enough, the boys mother, stepped into the conversation and acted as if the child has said and did nothing wrong. Neither the child nor the parent believed that stealing the chips was wrong. In disbelief, I shook my head and “Really, this is what your teaching him”. Her answer was the telling factor. She said, “If this man can afford this big old truck, he won’t miss a back of chips.” It was as if the vendor owed them something.
This is seen at some level every day in this county. Now do you think that child will grow up with the moral direction and ambition to achieve anything in life?
Scum,trash,hicks, floozies, bums, and other adjectives I can't type here come in all colors as wellasassortments of male and female. It's sort of like scroll of "smarties" candy....little round disks, much like each other,but each a lightly a different color,which all added together do absolutely nothing for you health wise.
So, if you are one of the above, and decide to use your race or sex as an excuse for being one of the above, then you are a pitiful looser and a coward. Your gender and race are picked by God. What you do with your sorry hide is however picked by YOU! Squit whining and pull up your pants and get to work.
Your comments are halarious
It must come from somewhere else than learned on the streets. Is it taught at home?
I know what you are thinking....and YOU are wrong. The actual answer is "criminal culture"...
Sport, you are busted. See how easy that was. It's ok, it's ok. You can't help it, it's embedded in you...not me.
Maybe it's just a figment of your imagination.
You know what I think? And I'm good, very good at this... You want the KKK to be relevant, you don't want them to go away. You think most caucasions walking down the street are secret members. You believe by continually accusing people of racism, that they'll be shamed into silence and you'll win the argument. You know I'm right.
Doesn't work with me, I have no guilt. I don't lie, and am proud of me. I can stand alone, on my two feet and engage in any conversation without throwing my hands in the air and screaming racism if I'm loosing the argument. Try it for once. Try having a disagreement with someone without saying that word when your loosing....ok?
Rejoicing over the capture is revenge, a sin.
Yep, I'm glad they got these off the streets too. Thank God...