Jury Convicts Joyner Of Manslaughter In Double Homicide Case

The panel found him responsible for killing one victim, but not the other.

 

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Frederick, Md (KM) The jury came down Friday with a verdict in the case of Delajhi Joyner.  The panel found the 25-year-old New York City man was not responsible for the death of Jermaine Hill, but was convicted of manslaughter for killing Shondre Naylor. Joyner had been on trial for two counts of 1st-degree murder for the deaths of Hill and Naylor.

“Disappointing verdict” said Frederick County State’s Attorney Charlie Smith. “Unfortunately, they did not hold him responsible for Jermaine Hill’s death. However, they did find  that he committed manslaughter against Ms. Naylor. Not what we wanted, but he’s going to have to be held responsible for one of the two deaths.”

Sentencing is scheduled for March 29th, 2019.

Joyner has been on trial since December 3rd, 2018 for the deaths of Naylor and Hill. Both were stabbed and run over twice by a car in November, 2017 along Acacia Court just outside of Frederick. Closing arguments were presented on Wednesday, and the case was turned over the jury after that.

Jurors took nearly three days to come up with a verdict. “They were out for a very long time. We though because of the amount of jury instructions and complicated self-defense laws that they were going to take their time to look it over,” Smith says. “But we really felt they would really see it the way everyone else did–with the exception of the defendant, of course–that this was truly a homicide. But they did not, and we really have to respect that verdict.”

Smith says the maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years. “We’ll ask for the maximum sentence for manslaughter,” he says.

 

By Kevin McManus