LUMBERTON — A 24-year-old Lumberton man faces spending the rest of his life in prison for a shooting death that occurred in 2015.
Walter Morrell McKoy Jr., of 216 Graham Circle, was convicted Friday in Superior Court in Lumberton for the death on March 31, 2015, of 21-year-old William Covington. McKoy was found guilty of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm and discharging a firearm inside city limits. He was sentenced that same day to life in prison by Judge Robert Floyd.
The case was prosecuted by Joe Osman, first assistant to the elected district attorney, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Martha Duvall.
The shooting was the result of an argument over a missing firearm that took place earlier between McKoy and Covington, Duvall said. Covington was said to have given McKoy a firearm and the firearm was not returned.
On the day of the shooting, McKoy went to Covington’s residence on Lambeth Street and the two men got into a vehicle to talk, Duvall said.
McKoy argued in court that once in the vehicle he put a firearm in his lap, Duvall said. McKoy also said at one point Covington began to pull a firearm from his coat pocket and he tried to stop Covington. The two men struggled and the firearm discharged during the struggle.
Covington was shot three times in the head, Duvall said. All three rounds struck Covington in such a way that the wounds were in a semicircle about his right ear. The wounds were in a grouping about 4 inches wide.
The prosecution argued that such a neat grouping could not have been formed by accidental discharging during a struggle, Duvall said.
“Apparently the jury believed us,” she said.
The shooting incident took place on the 1900 block of Lambert Street. Detective Derek Evans of the Lumberton Police Department led the investigation. The detective was assisted by Erich Hackney, an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office at the time.
