A man involved in a gang-related shooting near where just hours earlier hundreds of people had enjoyed the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade in downtown Elizabethtown will spend up to seven years in custody under an agreement with the state.
Meredith Jaquan Cromartie, 25, of Elizabethtown, was sentenced Monday in Bladen County Superior Court to between 60 months and 84 months after accepting responsibility for his actions under an Alford plea. The plea included discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, possession of a firearm by a felon, assault on a female and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. Five counts of attempted first degree murder were dismissed under the agreement.
The shooting incident took place Jan. 18 about 4 p.m. when officers with the Elizabethtown Police Department responded to reports of shots fired at the intersection of Gill Street and MLK Drive, according to records. Investigators say the shots were directed toward Jeffery Lewis, who was a gang member from a different gang than Cromartie’s. Lewis was on scene when officers arrived, but would not answer questions, said Assistant District Attorney Quintin McGee in a summary of the case at Monday’s sentencing. The shots struck the front left quarterpanel of a vehicle being driven by Felicia McGill, McGee said. There were three adults and a 2-year-old child in the vehicle, but no one was injured.
Cromartie fled the scene. He was apprehended by U.S. Marshals on Feb. 10 at a convenience store in Fayetteville.
McGee told the court there had been some animosity between Cromartie, Lewis and McGill in the past.
Cromartie also plead Monday to possession of a firearm by a felon. He had plead guilty in April 2012 to assault inflicting serious bodily injury and had served time in custody.
The assault on a female and assault by pointing a gun charges which Cromartie plead to came from two incidents over a three-day period in August 2015, McGee told the court.
Cromartie was represented by Andrew Wall of Elizabethtown.
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