The state anticipates resting its case against Darius Washington Thursday or Friday, District Attorney Jon David said.
After four weeks of testimony, prosecutors have two more witnesses to call in the brutal 2019 slaying. Prentis Deshawn McDuffie and Washington were arrested in February 2020 for the triple slaying.
Investigators said Alexis Ciprian Trujillo, 5; his mother Nancy Trujillo Espinoza; and Leonel Ciprian Noyola were killed in the Sept. 7 robbery, and Rafaela Noyola Jaramillo was seriously injured. Alexis was a kindergarten student at Whiteville Primary.
The shooting spree occurred in a home on Brittany Lane off N.C. 130. It was originally reported that Washington and McDuffie went to the residence about a car that was for sale. Washington was arrested with the stolen car during a drug raid on Twin Pines Road. The men stole around $6,000 in cash from the home along with the car.
Washington was originally charged with felony possession of cocaine and possession of a stolen vehicle on Sept. 10. Vereen was charged with possessing with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, maintaining a dwelling for drug activities, and possession of a stolen .380 Colt handgun.
McDuffie was arrested in October on charges from an August home invasion in Whiteville. He allegedly used an AR-15 rifle to take electronics, jewelry, and a bobblehead doll from Edward James Worley on Aug. 19. He allegedly assaulted the victim during the robbery, according to warrants.
McDuffie eluded arrest until he was spotted by Whiteville Police in the Ivy’s restaurant parking lot. McDuffie resisted while being taken into custody. He was charged with second degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, possession of stolen goods and resisting an officer. He was jailed under $201,000 secured bond.
The family was killed just after 6 a.m., according to testimony. Leonel Noyola was found dead in the yard. The mother, child and grandmother were found inside the home. Jaramillo’s husband Fernando was working out of town at the time of the shooting.
The day after the killings, two men matching the descriptions of Washington and McDuffie were spotted driving the Noyola’s car while stealing a pickup truck on New Britton Highway. The car was eventually recovered in Myrtle Beach.
The killing is the third triple-homicide in recent history in the county. Three Latino males died after an argument in a Nakina home in 1997. That case has never been solved. In 2005, Danny Lamont Thomas shot and killed a married couple and another man on Dessie Road near Chadbourn. Thomas was also charged in a murder in Durham. He was found guilty and is on Death Row.
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