Marquail McKoy testified Wednesday that he felt threatened when he fired a shot at Terrence Montgomery as Montgomery was leaving a home on Kemp Street in Elizabethtown in March 2015.
McKoy, who is 17, is on trial on charges of attempted first degree murder and discharging a weapon into an occupied property. No one was injured in the shooting. If convicted, McKoy could face up to 29 years in custody.
McKoy told a jury in Bladen County Superior Court that he had felt threatened by Montgomery about a week prior to the shooting over his romantic relationship with Shaquanda Woods, and that he had borrowed a gun from a friend in order to protect himself.
“I was walking down MLK to go get a haircut,” McKoy testified. “A car passed by. It was Shaquanda’s car. It made a U-turn and pulled up beside me on the sidewalk. Terrence got (partially) out of the car and said ‘I don’t want to see you around here. You better lay low.’ I felt threatened.”
On March 4, 2015, McKoy testified that he went to the house at 408 Kemp Street to get a tattoo from Jason Banks. McKoy said he used the back door to enter the kitchen and was told by Banks that it would be better if he came back later. Montgomery then entered the kitchen, McKoy said, and asked him “Didn’t I tell you to lay low?” McKoy said he left through the back door and that he was only in the house “one or two minutes.”
“I just wanted to leave. I didn’t want any trouble,” McKoy testified.
McKoy then said as he was walking around the outside of the house toward the front that he saw Montgomery coming out the front door. Montgomery’s two-year-old son was behind him and Crystal Gale Banks, who rented the home, followed, Crystal Banks testified Wednesday.
“Terrence turned toward me and lifted up his shirt,” McKoy testified. “I saw a gun. He said something. I had my gun in the my pocket and pulled it out and shot at him and ran down Gill Street.”
McKoy said he got into a vehicle driven by Saquan Covington, who took him home. McKoy said he remained at home for “two or three hours” before he went to the King Street gym to play basketball. He was arrested outside the gym about 8 p.m.
McKoy’s testimony Wednesday contradicted statements he made to Elizabethtown Police Lt. Lonnie Cheshire on the night of the shooting.
“Mr. McKoy said he had gone to the residence on Kemp Stret,” Cheshire testified Wednesday. “He remembered shots being fired, but he wasn’t the one who fired the shots. He did indicate that Mr. Montgomery had made a derogatory statement toward him as he was leaving. He said he walked past the front of the house, then walked to the intersection of Kemp and Gill streets where he heard the gunshot.”
In his statement, McKoy said that he didn’t have a gun and he wasn’t the shooter, Cheshire testified.
Also, a note that McKoy had written while in custody to his mother and placed in dirty laundry was shown to the jury. A portion of the note read that McKoy was “gone before the accident happened.”
According to Montgomery’s testimony Tuesday under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Glenn Emery, he had gone inside the Kemp Street home because his son had to use the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom, Montgomery testified, McKoy also was in the house. Montgomery said that he and McKoy exchanged words.
Montgomery said he decided to leave and as he walked out the front door with the child behind him that he turned and McKoy was standing there with a revolver pointed at him. Montgomery said that McKoy fired the weapon. Montgomery testified that he thought he had been hit by the shot, but discovered he had not.
Closing arguments are expected Thursday morning before the jury will be given instructions by Judge Beecher R. Gray.
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