A North Carolina man accused of shooting and killing a 5-year-old boy in an unprovoked assault has avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty and will serve the rest of his life in prison without parole.
Darius Sessoms, 25, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Thursday in Wilson County court for the August 2020 shooting of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant in a case a judge ruled in October that he would stand trial. as a capital murder case that brought a possible death sentence, WRAL-TV reported.
Sessoms had been charged after prosecutors said he walked up to Cannon, his neighbor in Wilson, North Carolina, and shot him in the head at point-blank range as the boy was riding his bike in front of his 7- and 8-year-old children. sisters of years
Cannon’s father, who owned the house the boy was playing in front of, said Sessoms was a friend of the Hinnant family and had come to the house the night before for a beer.
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Darius Sessoms, 25, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant in North Carolina.
(Hinnant family, Wilson police)
“There was nothing between him and me, no bad blood at all, for him to have a reason to do this”, Austin Hinnant. he told WRAL-TV after the murder.
“I have no idea why he did what he did,” Hinnant added. “He literally came out of nowhere. He puts a gun to my son’s head and shoots him.”
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Sessoms’ parents said they believe their son was drugged and hallucinating at the time of the shooting.
Darius Sessoms, 25, pleaded guilty to murdering 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant.
(Wilson Police Department)
Cannon’s murder reverberated across North Carolina with supporters donating more than $800,000 to a GoFundMe page for the family, which had publicly stated they were seeking the death penalty.
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“I want the death penalty and I’m going to get it,” Bonny Waddell, Cannon’s mother, said in 2020.
Sessoms pleaded guilty to Alford, allowing the defendant to maintain his innocence but acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.
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The Wilson County Courthouse building in North Carolina.
(Google Maps)
Sessoms’ girlfriend at the time of the murder, Aolani Pettit, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to a suspended sentence of four to 14 months, along with 18 months of supervised probation, WRAL-TV reported.
The Wilson County Courthouse did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Associated Press contributed to this report
