Edgecombe jury finds shooter guilty of murder

Local News

November 11, 2009

T. J. ROYAL

A guilty verdict for first-degree murder was reached in Edgecombe County Superior Court Tuesday, in the shooting death of a man last October near a Rocky Mount gas station.

Citarian Crandell, 23, of 521 Greenleaf Apt. 8 in Sharpsburg was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 24-year-old Derek Morris, which took place Oct. 1, 2008 near the EP Mart on North Raleigh Street.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment without a chance for parole. The jury, composed of four black women, four white women and four black men, deliberated around an hour before returning the guilty verdict.

They had a choice of returning a verdict of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter or not guilty.

Morris was riding in a car on Fairview Road past the gas station, along with his brother and a friend, when he was struck and later died from a gun shot wound to the head.

Testimony from witnesses described Crandell firing a .40-caliber handgun towards another man in the direction of the road. The other man involved in the shooting fired back with a .32-caliber handgun in the direction of the gas station.

An SBI agent who performed tests on both guns used in the shooting determined the bullet that killed the victim could not have been fired from the smaller caliber gun.