Guilty plea ends death penalty murder trial

Delronezy Washington, one of two people accused of killing pizza delivery man Wilson James while robbing him of $96 in 2007, pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery a few days into his death penalty trial in Dorchester County.

Circuit Judge R. Knox McMahon sentenced Washington to 40 years in prison on the murder charge and 30 years for armed robbery. The sentences will run concurrently, but Washington will have to serve the entire 40 years.

Washington, 20, agreed Saturday to plead, shortly after the first phase of his death penalty trial had begun and one day after his accomplice took the stand.

Deshawn A. Brown, who was 16 during the crime, previously pleaded guilty to murder and armed robbery, but he didn't face the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for anyone who is 17 or younger at the time of the crime.

Walter Bailey, a former prosecutor who defended Washington along with Dorchester County Public Defender Mark A. Leiendecker, said they had been discussing a possible plea agreement with the 1st Circuit Solicitor's Office for six months with no luck, but things changed once the trial began.

Both Bailey and Assistant Solicitor Blair Jennings described Brown's testimony as back and forth, but he ultimately implicated his cousin and good friend in the crime. Affidavits and prosecutors identified Washington as the gunman.

"As you go through a trial, sometimes things don't develop like you think things will develop on both sides," Bailey said. "No one knew which way that (Brown's testimony) would cut. It had an element of uncertainty that came into the trial."

Jennings said James' family also had wanted to avoid a trial, if possible, and family members supported the plea and sentencing. "We told the family that option, and that was what they wanted to do, so we supported them," he said.

James, 54, was shot once when he tried to make a delivery at 108 Beatrice Lane in the Greenhurst subdivision near Summerville. The pizza order was fake, and he was shot when he got out of his station wagon. At the time, James was working three jobs, partly to help put two children through college. He delivered pizzas five evenings a week, delivered The Post and Courier in the mornings and ran a vending machine business during the day.

When Brown pleaded guilty, he was not sentenced but was told he would receive a 30-year sentence if he testified truthfully. Jennings said the Solicitor's Office has not set a date for the sentencing or decided if Brown's testimony lives up to his end of the deal. "We just have to decide where we're at," Jennings said.

Reach Robert Behre at rbehre@postandcourier.com or 937-5771.