WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Two people, including a teenager, have been sentenced in a Winston-Salem murder where a woman was hit with a stray bullet in her sleep.
At the time of the shooting, Ezra Houston Yeary was 14 years old, and Omarion Tremaine Davis was 15 years old, as they were initially charged as juveniles. However, the state moved to transfer them both from Juvenile Court to Superior Court.
In August 2021, Winston-Salem police were called to a home on East Fourteenth Street about a shooting. When officers arrived, they were told that 62-year-old Donna Blackmon was shot while sleeping at home in her bed. Officers said Blackmon had a gunshot wound to her abdomen, and despite life-saving measures by police, she died from her injuries.
Evidence presented during the trial showed that during the early hours of Aug. 22, 2021, Blackmon was sleeping while Yeary and Davis drove by her home looking for rival gang members. Yeary was the driver, and Davis was the passenger. As Yeary chased the rival gang’s car, Davis fired an AR-15 rifle multiple times in the direction of the car they were after. At least eleven shots were fired, several of which struck Blackmon’s home instead of the intended target. One of those rounds went through Blackmon’s bedroom wall and struck her as she was sleeping in bed next to her husband.
After an investigation, officers identified Davis and Yeary as the suspects in the murder. Officers conducted surveillance on Yeary and saw him place an AR-15 rifle into the trunk of a car. That car was stopped by police, and the firearm was recovered from the trunk of the car. The AR-15 rifle was test-fired and compared to the shell casings that were located at the scene using the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. It was determined that the AR-15 rifle recovered from Yeary was the murder weapon.
Interviews were later conducted with Davis and Yeary. Davis admitted to shooting the firearm at the other car, and he said had other rival gang members.
He said "that he was shooting at the car in front of them and that when the car swerved, a few bullets may have missed the car." Davis ultimately admitted that it was he who shot in the direction of Blackmon's home during the middle of the night. Yeary admitted to being the driver and attempting to willingly dispose of the AR-15 rifle after Davis told him to get rid of it.
The Honorable Jason Ramey, Superior Court Judge, sentenced Davis to 20 to 25 years in the North Carolina Department of Corrections and Yeary to 18 to 22 and 1/2 years in prison in the North Carolina Department of Corrections under plea negotiations.
