RALEIGH
The trial of the third suspect accused of killing a former Shaw University basketball player ended with a guilty verdict Tuesday but no one convicted of murder.
On August 27, 2017, Quentin Judd was found face down on the ground, surrounded by bullet casings at an apartment on Wolf Glen Court in Southwest Raleigh, according to a medical examiner. He died at the hospital from a bullet through his heart.
The 6-foot, 4-inch Judd was 23 years old and and set to transfer to the University of Lynchburg, Virginia. He was “full of potential,” prosecutor Luke Bumm said during closing arguments this week for the trial of Barry McCrae Jr., one of three people accused in the killing.
McCrae, 25, was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, possession with intent to sell and distribute marijuana and maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder.
McCrae was sentenced to 13 years and 1 month to 16 years and 9 months in prison for the conspiracy charge and 6 months to 17 months for the drug charges.
His cousin, Kevin Powell III, 23, and Tyra Washington, 21, who were initially charged with murder, had already pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Powell pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact, and Washington pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
McCrae was also a student at the time Judd died and played football for Shaw. His lawyer, Jeffrey Cutler, told the jury in his closing argument that the state had failed to meet its burden of proof.
Witnesses’ testimony
Those testifying at the trial included Washington; Thomas Johnson, a man McCrae shared a jail cell with; and several detectives.
Washington said McCrae was after Judd because he had broken into his car to steal something.
McCrae, who was living with Washington at the time, told her to text Judd to come to their apartment to have sex with her, she testified.
When Judd got to Wolf Glen Court, he exchanged texts with Washington, but she stopped replying to him.
He was shot in a breezeway under a staircase at the apartment complex.
Cutler argued Washington was not trustworthy because she changed her testimony, even providing information on the stand that no one had heard before about a gun missing from her apartment.
He also said text messages from Washington to Judd raised questions about her testimony because she does not ask Judd to come to her apartment until much later in the messages.
McCrae did not testify in court.
Detectives said he told them he was not at the apartment complex initially, but when they found his cell phone records, he admitted being there with someone else, Bumm said.
Cutler said McCrae cooperated with law enforcement and let them search his car and the apartment he shared with Washington, where they found six pounds of marijuana, packaged using many layers, which a detective opened while testifying in court.
Johnson, whom McCrae met in jail, said in a letter to the detective on McCrae’s case that he had information about the murder and he was asked to get in touch with Washington and McCrae’s girlfriend.
In court, Johnson initially pleaded the Fifth Amendment, which allows people to not testify to avoid implicating themselves in a crime. However, Judge Andrew Heath insisted he testify because he felt Johnson’s answers would not incriminate him.
Johnson said McCrae asked him to reach out to Washington and admitted the handwriting in the letter to the detective was his.
‘I still got nothing to do with it.’
McCrae sat in court dressed in a white shirt, his hair braided back and wearing glasses with small rectangular lenses. His sister let out gasps when they heard the jury had found him not guilty of murder. She teared up as a clerk read the rest of the verdict.
McCrae apologized, but denied killing Judd when given an opportunity to speak before sentencing.
“My sister is going to watch her brother go to prison,” he said. “I still got nothing to do with it.”
“Y’all make me out to be this monster,” McCrae said to Bumm.
On the other side of the courtroom sat Judd’s legal guardians, who declined to be identified by their names. Judd’s mother, whom Bumm identified as Ms. White, stressed how losing Judd affected the family.
“My heart was ripped to shreds, blood pressure through the roof,” she said. “My husband barely holding it together, trying to mask his anger and be strong.”
She said Quentin was also a father of a 7-year-old.
The last time Ms. White said she heard Judd’s voice was in a voicemail on Aug. 25, 2017. “Hey ma, I just wanted to let you know I love you.”