The Telegram via Edgecombe County District Court records has obtained the name of the 15-year-old boy who died at the hospital in Rocky Mount after police the night of March 13 found him shot in the Oakwood area.
Lamontrail Mearite allegedly was killed by Ja’Zion Moody and Shallah Fenner, according to arrest warrants as part of the court records on Thursday showing both Moody and Fenner charged with first-degree murder.
Moody, 20, and Fenner, 19, remained jailed without bond in the Edgecombe County Detention Center, an official at the county court clerk’s office told the Telegram on Thursday afternoon.
Moody and Fenner were not appointed attorneys by the court on Thursday because their legal counsel will be provided by the Office of the Capital Defender, the official told the newspaper. The Office of the Capital Defender represents indigent adults charged with potential capital cases at the trial level.
Moody had listed an address in the 100 block of Lakeview Terrace in Greenville and Fenner had listed an address in the 400 block of Wahree Street in Tarboro, the court records said.
Police in a news release on Wednesday evening also said warrants were obtained for the arrest of Deshunto Alston Jr., 19, of Rocky Mount stemming from a search warrant having been executed in the 1300 block of Tarboro Street.
Alston is charged with three counts of possession of a stolen gun, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, felony possession of marijuana, maintaining a dwelling for the use and storage or sale of illegal drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia, the news release said.
Alston also is charged with five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the news release said.
The news release said Alston remained at large.
Officers at 10:48 p.m. on March 13 were in the area of Tarboro Street when they heard shots being fired and were immediately notified by ShotSpotter about an address in the 1300 block of Tarboro. ShotSpotter is a system of sensors designed to detect, locate and alert police of gunfire in real time.
The boy, after being found wounded outside a house at that address, was transported by ambulance to UNC Health Nash, where he died.
During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, police Capt. Westlyn Seabreeze said detectives found a felony amount of marijuana and eight firearms in the house.
Three of the eight firearms were reported stolen, Seabreeze said. More specifically, two of the firearms were reported stolen from Rocky Mount and one of them was reported stolen from Alabama.
The boy’s immediate family was notified of what happened on Monday night, but the boy’s name was not being released at that point out of respect to the boy’s family, Seabreeze said.
The Telegram on Thursday morning asked the police department via email to provide the name of the boy.
The newspaper also asked the department, if the department did not wish to release the boy’s name, to provide what part of state law the department believed to be the reason why the boy’s name is considered confidential information.
Capt. Ryan Hepler told the newspaper the department’s position is that records of criminal investigations conducted by public law enforcement agencies and records of criminal intelligence information compiled by public law enforcement agencies are not public as defined by state law.
In follow-up email correspondence, Hepler told the newspaper, “At this point in the investigation we are not releasing the name of the victim. When we get to a point where we feel that the name can be released, we will provide you with (the) same.”
A more than a four-page printout providing a list of calls to police communications for service at the house in the 1300 block of Tarboro as far back as nearly two years ago shows officers went to that location half a dozen times in response to shots fired or heard.
The printout also shows officers went to that location four times to serve court papers and two times to serve warrants.
The printout also shows officers went to that location two times in connection with emergency medical teams having been called, once about a report of narcotics being there and once about a report of an unknown disturbance having occurred there.
At the same time, the printout shows officers went to that location the overwhelming majority of times as a result of the police department having taken the initiative by engaging in a directed patrol.
According to the ShotSpotter website, a directed patrol means adding visible patrols — whether in vehicles or on foot — when and where crime is expected. The website said the underlying idea is that would-be criminals would be deterred by the sight of a patrol car.
Alston and Fenner have been arrested before.
In August 2021, the Telegram reported that Alston was free on bond after police had obtained warrants against him on charges in connection with a shooting on the Nash County side of the city and using the Edgecombe County side of the city as a base to deal heroin and cocaine.
In February 2022, the Telegram reported that Alston, a man and two juveniles were charged with firearms-related offenses in connection with more than 70 shots fired and three residences damaged on the eastern side of the city.
In June 2022, the Telegram reported that Fenner was among four men charged with trafficking in heroin. That was after Nash County deputies, with help from Rocky Mount police, confiscated heroin, opioid pills, firearms and marijuana after executing a search warrant at a residence in the Cross Creek area on the north side of the city.
