Man pleads guilty in 2014 murder of 16-year-old

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A Chadbourn man could spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a 16-year-old boy.

Judge Douglas Sasser sentenced Hakeem Kili Gaines, 21, to between 12 years and months and 12 years five month after Gaines admitted his role in the death of Travis Lee Bellamy, Jr., of Clarkton, according to a news release from the District Attorney’s Office.

The police chief at the time said Bellamy was standing on West Institute Street in September 2014 talking on his cell phone when a silver car driven by his cousin arrived, and he began talking to the people inside. Then shots were fired from down the street. Bullets hit the vehicle and Bellamy was shot in the side and head. Witnesses say the car quickly turned around and drove away.

People who knew Bellamy said he was in a gang. Police said Bellamy had a 9 mm handgun and a .22 caliber pistol in his pockets, but it did not look like he fired either of the guns.

In April 2015 investigators charges Gaines and Tyriek McKinnies with Bellamy’s murder.

The case against McKinnies is pending in Columbus County Superior Court.