Guilty Verdict For Texas Man Accused Of Killing Local Teenager
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) --- A man from Texas will spend the rest of his life in prison, convicted of killing a Gateway High School football player.
Today, jurors in North Carolina found Gabriel Gamez guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Darrell Turner.
Two years ago, Gamez shot Turner and another player, Thomas Woodson, outside of a restaurant in Durham.
Woodson survived.
Gamez testified the players approached him, threatened him and he fired in self-defense.
Prosecutors say Gamez taunted the boys with racial slurs and then shot them in the back as they ran away.
For Gateway football assistant coach Larry Gholston, today's verdict dug up emotions he didn't even realize we're buried so deep.
It was June 23rd, 2011 in a Durham, North Carolina parking lot where 18-year old Darrell Turner was shot to death by Gabriel Gamez--a complete stranger who prosecutors argued, was racist.
It was a factor that motivated Gateway students to achieve greatness.
"A lot of African Americans don't get to go to college and it has definitely given us that extra boost and focus on our grades," says teammate Barnett Harris.
Harris and Devanteae Butler weren't just Turner's teammates. They considered themselves brothers to a young man they all called "Mook."
Both say it's been a long two years waiting for Gamez's guilty verdict but can now breathe easy knowing the man that took number 25's life will spend the rest of his behind bars.
"It's over," Larry Gholston says. "It's closure we can now move on now. The kids that were involved and the ones that testified in this trial are able to graduate and walk on this field that they played on with him and can go on to the next phase of their life at the collegiate level."
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