A Durham resident has been sentenced to three terms of life in prison without parole following a jury trial in Alamance County superior court that ran for several weeks.
Visiting superior court judge Thomas Lock of Johnston County sentenced Hyquan Johan Parker, 31, black, male, late Thursday afternoon, in keeping with the jury’s recommendation following several days of deliberations.
The nearly all-white jury, which included one black female, unanimously convicted Parker of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon on October 22. The jury heard arguments for the sentencing phase on Tuesday, October 29.
Parker was convicted of murdering three Burlington men – Tyrone Brandon Nelson, Jr., then 18; Kaseem Devon Zinebalist Peterson, then 27; and Jason Deangelo Williams, then 26 – at an apartment complex at 15 Perry Circle in Burlington on June 30, 2019.
Parker was ultimately apprehended later the same night, while hiding in a carport in at 1530 Morgantown Road, and the Norinco SKS semiautomatic rifle used in the shooting was recovered from a nearby wooded area along Sharpe Road, based on testimony given by Burlington police officers at the beginning of the trial at the J.B. Allen, Jr. Court House in Graham.
Alamance County district attorney Sean Boone and assistant D.A. Elizabeth Olivier had argued for Parker to receive the death penalty. It marked the first capital murder case to be tried in Alamance County in a decade.
During their closing arguments for the sentencing phase last Tuesday, Parker’s defense attorneys, Robert Singagliese and Christine Malumphy of the Office of the Capital Defender (Indigent Defense Services) in Durham, outlined why Parker should instead receive life in prison.The defense attorneys urged jurors to consider 70 mitigating factors in recommending a sentence. Those factors included: Parker suffers from a “neurodevelopmental” disorder and grew up in a dysfunctional, single-parent home in east Durham, where he had been exposed from an early age to the subculture of gangs in which the threat of violence as always “just beneath the surface,” based on Singagliese’s description of Parker’s formative years in his closing argument for the sentencing phase.
“That is not an excuse,” but Parker’s upbringing was limited, “it was shaped,” by those influences, Singagliese said, reminding jurors that a doctor who had testified earlier in the trial that, “for boys in places like east Durham, gangs can offer a sense of security.”
Parker had been affiliated with the Crips, based on testimony given early last month.
During his opening statement for the trial on October 7, Singagliese recounted how a friend had called Parker to buy drugs the day of the murders, and Parker traveled with that person from Durham to Burlington, where he eventually found himself “alone, outnumbered, and in a gang house,” after allegedly being robbed by the three eventual murder victims.
After Parker was sentenced on Thursday, Boone commended the Burlington police department’s quick response to the initial report of the shooting in June 2019 and subsequent investigation. “Their work not only took a multiple murderer off the streets of Burlington within 30 minutes of the crime, but also allowed our office to present a clear and effective case to the jury,” Boone said.
Boone also commended the members of the jury for putting their lives on hold, since jury selection started in mid-September until Parker was sentenced. “Their verdicts and recommendations send a clear message to our community that people who commit such destructive acts of violence will be held accountable by the people of this county,” Boone acknowledged in a statement.
Meanwhile, Parker’s attorneys immediately gave notice of appeal.
As their grounds for appeal, the defense attorneys cited multiple motions they had filed on Parker’s behalf since July, to include: a September 16 motion to strike the entire jury panel, on grounds that it didn’t accurately reflect the racial demographics of the community; a September 9 motion to dismiss the charges due to the alleged failure to preserve “nine hours of Burlington Housing Authority surveillance video” that could contain exculpatory evidence; and a July 2 motion to compel the D.A.’s office to turn over evidence gathered by any federal agencies, such as the FBI (regarding data extracted from a cell phone), as well as investigative materials from the state department of corrections, any potential victim compensation claims, and all handwritten notes recorded by 17 law enforcement officers, as well as other materials.
Parker is currently incarcerated at the Granville Correctional Institute, according to the state Department of Adult Corrections (DAC).
Parker had been previously convicted of second-degree murder in Durham County in February 2009 and was paroled in February 2016, according to DAC.
