Darius Sessoms: North Carolina man, 25, gets life in prison for shooting neighbor’s son, 5, in the head
Warning: This article contains recollection of crime that may trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.
WILSON, NORTH CAROLINA: Darius N Sessoms will spend the rest of his life behind bars after he entered a plea agreement that allowed him to take on criminal responsibility for killing his neighbor's son, 5, more than a year ago. However, the man from North Carolina refrained from confessing to the crime.
According to WRAL, Sessoms, 25, accepted an Alford plea on Thursday, December 28, in the murder of Cannon Hinnant. He was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole by the judge. A defendant, who maintains his innocence but admits the prosecution has presented sufficient evidence to convict him, enters an Alford plea. That has spared Sessoms from getting a death sentence. Wilson County prosecutors were pushing for the death penalty. Authorities claim that on August 9, 2020, when Cannon was riding his bike, Sessoms, a neighbor, ran outside, put his gun to the boy's head, and then fired the trigger. The boy's two sisters, aged 7 and 8, witnessed the horrific incident.
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Locals and family members expressed surprise at the shocking incident which resulted in the death of the young boy as there were no signs that he had an issue with the Hinnant family. The night before the shooting, Cannon's father Austin Hinnant reportedly had a beer with Sessoms.
“We used to play together and I never thought he’d kill someone,” Rachel Pipkin, who is a cousin of Hinnant’s mother, told WXIN shortly after the incident. “A mother now has to lay her son to rest at 5 years old which she should never have to do. He’ll never be forgotten,” she added.
Initially, Sessoms was seen to be engaging in play with the children, according to witness Dori Lybrand. “My first reaction was he’s playing with the kids,” she said, according to WRAL. “For a second, I thought, ‘That couldn’t happen.’ People don’t run across the street and kill kids,” she added.
According to reports, Austin Hinnant heard a gunshot and discovered his son lying on the ground. “[You] can’t imagine what it’s like to hold your son in your arms with a gunshot wound to the head, and his blood is running down your arms,” he told WRAL. The sentencing, according to Cannon's mother Bonny Parker, "brings us a little bit of peace." “Knowing that we are walking out of here today and we don’t have to come back,” she told WRAL. “We don’t have to see him. My girls do not have to testify in court. That was the whole reason why he took this plea. It was best for him to take this plea so it would not have to get our girls up there,” the grieving mother added.