Prentiss Deshawn McDuffie was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to three life sentences plus 207 months in prison for the 2019 slaying of Whiteville area family.
McDuffie, 36, and Darius Washington went to the home of Leonel Noyola around 6 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2019, where they killed Noyola, his wife Nancy, and five year old son Alexis. They also wounded Noyola’s mother Rafaela. Washington was found guilty in less than an hour earlier this year on what would have been Alexis’ 11th birthday.
The shootings 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. The men stole around $6,000 in cash from the home along with the Noyolas’ car. Washington was later arrested with the stolen car during a drug raid on Twin Pines Road. One of the suspects caught in the raid had a handgun later identified as being used in the murders.
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.
Washington was originally charged with felony possession of cocaine and possession of a stolen vehicle on Sept. 10.
McDuffie was arrested in October 2019 on charges from a 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 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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