Father says he forgives son’s killer after he was sentenced to life in prison

CHARLOTTE — A local family has justice five years after their son was murdered outside of a southwest Charlotte shopping center.

According to the district attorney’s office, Demarco Pegues’ killer will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz spoke with Pegues’ father, who said he forgives the man who took his son. He said his faith helped him get to that point, and he even wanted to ask the judge if he could hug his son’s killer.

“He still has a chance in life to talk to God,” William Davis said. “Let God heal you, let God forgive you, because I asked God for this.”

That forgiveness is helping Davis move forward, and he’s making it his mission to keep his son’s legacy alive.

Pegues meant the world to his father.

“We shared the same birthday,” Davis said. “March the first.”

“Greatest birthday gift a man could ever have,” he said. “To this day, I don’t really celebrate our birthday no more.”

That’s because in March 2018, just weeks after celebrating their birthdays together, Pegues was shot to death in broad daylight outside a Panera Bread restaurant at Whitehall Commons, near Interstate 485.

“It was a very sad moment to see all this stuff come about. Of your baby on that gurney getting pushed away,” Davis said.

He remembered how it felt when he learned his son had been killed.

“Very hurtful and sad to see your son get murdered the way he got murdered,” Davis said. “The shot that killed him in the back of the neck went through and busted his artery. Within three seconds, he was gone, so no way paramedics could have saved his life.”

Five years later, on Wednesday, a jury convicted Jeffrey Boggs of first-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to life in prison. It was justice that came with its own heartbreak.

“Two families and two people are hurting,” Davis said.

“To see this young man on trial for life in prison without parole, and nobody there to support him but him and his two attorneys -- I felt bad, but I was grateful that we got justice for my son.”

A son who is with him every day as his hologram hangs from his neck, hovering over his heart that holds so many memories.

“It’s my baby man. It’s my baby,” he said. “When I’m not working, it’s around my neck every day.”

“I feel him every day.”

Davis said he feels his son with him even while he’s at work, in part because Pegues is buried at the same cemetery where his father works.

“I just get teary-eyed being around that area,” he said.

“I just want everyone to remember how lovable Demarco was. He was a very lovable person.”

He said one of the lasting effects of his son’s death is that he doesn’t face his front door anymore.

“To this day, I don’t have my front door open no more. I don’t sit facing the front door... I keep my back to the door now, ‘cause in my heart, my son could walk in that door at any given time,” Davis said. “I know that ain’t ever going to happen.”

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