Killer heads to prison after accepting plea deal in 2015 murder

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A man will spend nearly two decades in prison after admitting to a 2015 murder in Wilmington.

Montrell Dyshawn Sweet reached a plea agreement more than two years after the shooting death of Ali Iquan Dameish Rouse.

In court, Sweet, who had been charged with first-degree murder, agreed to the lesser charge of second-degree murder and to discharging a firearm into a vehicle. A judge sentenced to 15-19 years in prison.

Rouse’s mother addressed the judge saying to Sweet: “Who are you to play God with my child’s life?”

Sweet was accused of arguing with Rouse over the mother of his daughter before shooting into the car three times. He hit Rouse in the chest and arm. Rouse drove off and crashed into another car and a wall in the 1900 block of Market Street, where he died.

“What you decided to do was in the heat of the moment,” Winifred Ellerby, victim’s mother, said. “I mean, with the education you have, I know you have the intelligence to know right from wrong. You decided to do something in the heat of the moment that changed everyone’s lives, his family and my family. Now he’s in a situation where he can’t be there for his child, so we both lose. Like his family won’t have him, I won’t have my son. We both lose.”

One of Sweet’s last statements in court was that the victim’s family is in his prayers.