JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An attorney representing a man accused of burglarizing a University of North Florida employee and then masterminding his murder to prevent him from testifying dropped his client on Monday.
Jecorian McCray, 23, is charged with burglarizing the home of the University of North Florida employee Joe Brenton, who was killed just hours before he was set to testify in McCray's trial.
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Detectives investigating the homicide listened to jail recordings of McCray speaking by phone with 17-year-old Dakarai Maxwell, and heard them talking about getting McCray's 21-year-old girlfriend, Teirany Shelton, to visit the Brentons and ask him to take back his statements about the burglary because McCray was "looking at 30 years."
"When he learned the bribery didn't work, he told Dakarai that he needed to kill him," Lt. Steve Gallaher said. "He walked Dakarai step by step through the process of how to kill him. In the morning, the murder occurred, just like he was instructed to do."
Acting on information in the recordings, police obtained arrest warrants charging McCray with murder.
The attorney who was set to defend McCray in his burglary case dropped his client. Now, the attorney set to defend McCray in the murder case will defend him in the burglary case as well.
McCray will be back in court next month for a hearing in the murder case. A new date has not been set for the burglary case.