Wilmington man pleads guilty to second-degree murder and shooting into home

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY)– A Wilmington man will spend at least 27 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a 2022 murder.

On Thursday, 20-year-old Damon Stackhouse pled guilty in New Hanover County Superior Court to Second-Degree Murder and Discharging a Firearm into an Occupied Dwelling.

Stackhouse was identified as one of three men wanted for the fatal shooting of Jalin Tilghman-Deablo.

Tilghman-Deablo was shot several times outside New Hanover Village Apartments on September 22, 2022. He died a short time later.

The shooters took off in a black SUV that detectives were able to link to one of the co-defendants in the case, Ja’Tayvian Hanible. Detectives found Hanible’s vehicle parked outside of co-defendant Jaquan Smith’s house on Ann Street in Wilmington.

They found Stackhouse, Hanible, Smith and a fourth co-defendant, Labron Pryor in the house, as well as the three guns that were linked to the shooting.

One of those guns and a bullet casing found at the crime scene contained Stackhouse’s DNA.

Investigators say the shooting was done in retaliation for a gang-related shooting that happened earlier in the day. A gang associate of Stackhouse was shot and injured near the intersection of South 14th and Ann Street.

The murder cases for co-defendants Labron Pryor, Jaquan Smith, and Ja’Tayvian Hanible are still pending.