A former UAB football player in Alabama, whose capital murder conviction in the killing of a Birmingham nursing student, was vacated pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge.
24-year-old Carlos Stephens pleaded guilty to murder in the 2020 slaying of 20-year-old Destiny Washington. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Stephens was convicted in April of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
His attorneys, however, successfully filed a motion seeking a new trial amid allegations and evidence that at least one juror did independent research during the deliberation process.
“We got a conviction on capital murder in the trial which is what we wanted and what we felt was just. However, due to a juror’s misconduct a new trial was ordered,’’ said Tora Washington, the victim’s mother.
“We took this plea deal to bring closure for our family.”
“We believe that we would have gotten another guilty verdict if we had gone to trial again,’’ she said. “The defense felt that way also or they would not have accepted the plea.”
“The last trial was very emotional and taxing on our family and we did not want to relive that again and reopen wounds that have began to heal,’’ Washington said.
“Our primary objective was for Mr. Stephens to admit guilt and be held accountable for Destiny’s death. So we did get justice for Destiny.”
Attorneys Richard Jaffe, Brett Knight and Jonathan Brown of Jaffe, Hanle, Whisonant and Knight represented Stephens on his appeal. He was represented in trial by lawyers Emory Anthony and Bobby Lendell Davs.
Jefferson County Deputy District Attorneys Jessica Hebson and Ashley Patterson prosecuted the case.
“When I filed the motion for a new trial, I was aware that these are almost never granted. After an extensive investigation, it was clear to me that the law required the granting of it,’’ Jaffe said Monday.
“Fortunately, both families had the wisdom and legal knowledge of Judge (Kechia) Davis. She held a thorough hearing, followed the law and did the courageous and right thing by granting it,’’ he said.
“Mr. Anthony, and I, and my associate Jonathan Brown, worked diligently with the very capable and wise prosecutors, who also recognized that going through another trial would have added much unnecessary pain and anguish,’’ Jaffe said.
“Instead, a fair compromise was negotiated under challenging circumstances. My client, in open court today, apologized to both families for the agonizing consequences of his reckless actions.”
Washington was shot to death at 9:40 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, in the parking lot of UAB’s student center on University Boulevard during a sale of $90 AirPods.
Prosecutors at the trial contended Stephens should be convicted of capital murder in Washington’s death, calling it a senseless, unreasonable, and unnecessary act of violence.
They told jurors Stephens was angry that Washington’s boyfriend was 30 minutes late arriving to their meeting and angry at what followed – which included Keyuntae Moultrie trying to sell Stephens a pair of fake AirPods, raising the previously agreed-upon price and then accusing Stephens of paying with counterfeit money.
Stephens’ attorneys, however, claimed their client fired in self-defense only after Washington’s boyfriend pulled a gun on him and threatened to “blow him away.”
Some jurors struggled during deliberations and at one point told Davis they could not agree on a verdict. Davis then issued an Allen charge, sometimes called a dynamite charge – telling jurors to keep deliberating.
They ultimately convicted Stephens of capital murder, which carried an automatic life-without-parole sentence because it was not a death penalty case.
Though jurors were told daily not research or Google anything, one juror admitted that at some point, the verdict was 11-1 for capital murder, and indicated that he was the hold-out and wanted to understand why he wasn’t seeing things the same way as his fellow jurors.
“Juror 551 testified that two scholarly papers were reviewed for approximately and hour detailing a historical definition of manslaughter,’’ the judge wrote in her order vacating the conviciton. “This research was not printed, and notes were not generated for review. However, this information was shared with other jurors before the verdict was reached in this case.”
That juror testified that the research he conducted confirmed what he was already thinking about deliberations. He said another juror pulled up the Alabama Criminal Code’s definition of capital murder on his cell phone, and he shared that information with his fellow jurors.
Juries are instructed not to any outside research and to consider only evidence during the trial and the judge’s explanation and instruction on the law.
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