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18-year-old pleads guilty to killing man who tried to save him after crash

By Ken Lemon, wsoctv.com
By Ken Lemon, wsoctv.com

LOWELL, N.C. — A Gaston County man pleaded guilty to shooting a good Samaritan in 2022.

Tyrin Dudley will serve the next 13 years in prison for the murder of Jose Antonia Jimenez Quinones, 52. A judge handed the sentence down on Monday.

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Quinones was coming home from work in early August 2022 when a car crashed in front of him at Main Street and Wilkinson Boulevard in Lowell. He got out to help a 16-year-old driver in the wreck when that driver, Dudley, pulled out a gun and shot Quinones, authorities said.

Dudley, now 18, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder.

Quinones’ family said the sentence helps, but it can’t replace the hole in their family. They said Quinones running into traffic to help a stranger in need showed the amount of love he had for his family. It’s a hole that can’t be filled.

They cried in court as Dudley entered his plea.

Quinones was a painter who migrated here from Mexico to find a better life for his family.

“You took somebody from us that was really important to us,” said his son-in-law Sergio Gomez Santos.

The prosecutor said in 2022, Dudley stole a gun from a friend. That friend confronted Dudley, who was a passenger in a car stopped at a red light that fateful night in August.

Dudley fired a shot out of the car that hit no one and then the driver of the car he was in took off. They crashed nearby in front of Quinones, who was the only witness to the wreck and saw Dudley struggling to get out.

“He died trying to help a stranger,” prosecutor Megan Rhoden said.

It was while Quinones tried to pry open the door that Dudley fired another shot from the stolen gun.

“Hit his heart and it was almost immediately fatal,” Rhoden said.

That was the start of the grieving for Quinones’ family.

“You can’t reverse it, regardless if you are sorry or not sorry,” Santos said.

While they are hurt that someone so young is headed to prison, they said it still won’t help the children who miss their father, or the babies missing their grandfather.

“You killed somebody. I feel you should be in jail for the rest of your life,” Santos said.

The family has accepted the plea deal knowing that some of the witnesses to the crime may not testify at trial.

Tyrin Dudley has spent two years in jail waiting for trial so he has a minimum of 11 years in prison to serve.

(WATCH BELOW: 911 calls released in the deadly shooting of a good Samaritan in Gaston County)

911 calls released in the deadly shooting of a good Samaritan in Gaston County




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