CHARLOTTE — Jerome Davis Jr. pleaded guilty Friday and was sentenced to prison after shooting and killing his girlfriend, Khira McKinley, on July 4, 2019, in north Charlotte.
It’s been a long four years for McKinley’s loved ones.
“Do you think he’s a bad man?” Channel 9′s Glenn Counts asked her six-year-old son, Khymyr McKinley.
“Yes he is,” the boy said. “He killed my mommy.”
The murder happened before swift justice could be served for the suspect.
The pandemic hit in early 2020, which effectively shut down the courts.
“Hard. It’s really been hard,” said Felicia Sims, a family member. “I mean, it’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about Khira.”
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McKinley was found shot to death inside a car in a cul-de-sac on Oakwinds Court near Old Statesville Road, police said.
Davis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the crime and was sentenced to between 10.4 to 13.7 years in prison.
He will get credit for spending almost four years in jail and could be out in as little as 6½ years.
“I don’t agree with it,” Sims said. “I don’t agree with it all. He should be in there for life.”
However, the victim’s family didn’t want to wait longer for a trial.
“We (were) ready to get it over with because it’s been four years and we’re tired,” Sims said.
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The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office has been chipping away at the court’s backlog.
“Yeah, it’s a challenge, but we never lose sight of our responsibility to the community to make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” said Glen Cole, an assistant district attorney.
Davis apologized to the family and said he didn’t mean to kill McKinley.
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