Wilmington man pleads guilty in 2018 deadly shooting

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in court on Wednesday.

25-year-old Trent Williams was sentenced by Judge Tiffany Powers to at least 18 and a half years in prison.

The deadly shooting happened around 5:25 p.m. on August 16, 2018 in the Houston Moore community on the 1300 block of Greenfield Street.

According to the district attorney’s office, Quashon Dujuan McRae and a friend had just left the Family Dollar store located across the street and were walking through the apartment complex when Williams — who neither of them knew — walked up and pulled a gun on McRae while talking about how McRae had shot the Williams’ wife’s car the night before.

McRae told the Williams that he didn’t know what he was talking about. Williams then looked more closely at McRae and then said words to the effect of, “my mistake, wrong person.” However, McRae was still agitated that Williams had pulled a gun on him, and the argument escalated such that Williams shot McRae. Eight rounds were fired, three of which hit McRae.

Many witnesses are believed to have seen what happened, but few were cooperative with authorities. This plea was made possible because some of these witnesses were willing to come to court and testify to what they saw.

As District Attorney Ben David said, “If more people were willing to testify, fewer people would actually have to testify.”