Co-defendant takes stand against man facing death penalty

Family members were horrified when they went to go check on two roommates in their Fuquay-Varina home in July 2014 and found them shot to death in their beds.

Posted 8:41 p.m. Jan 8, 2018 — Updated 5:40 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — Family members were horrified when they went to go check on two roommates in their Fuquay-Varina home in July 2014 and found them shot to death in their beds.

Police say Kevin Bernard Britt, Gregory Adalberto Crawford and Donavan Jevonte Richardson shot and killed Arthur Brown, 78, and his co-worker, David McKoy, 66, inside Brown's home at 236 Howard Road late on the night of July 19, 2014.

Crawford pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to life in prison, and Britt pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Richardson, 24, is now on trial on two counts of first-degree murder.

In return for a plea deal, Britt, who admitted to driving the getaway car, testified against Richardson.

"He said they thought they shot somebody, and he didn't know if they possibly killed them," Britt told the jury Monday. "He was sad, nervous...he thought the guy was going to shoot him first."

During cross-examination, Richardson's defense attorneys attacked Britt's credibility, saying he gave inconsistent statements to police and implied he testified only because he made a plea deal to avoid a stronger penalty.

Defense attorneys also painted a picture of a robbery that went terribly wrong.

The last person to face the death penalty in Wake County was Nathan Holden, who was convicted of the 2014 murder of his ex-wife’s parents and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in March 2017.

A Wake County jury has not sentenced anyone to death since 2007, and a decision to do so requires a unanimous decision by all 12 jurors.

Crawford, 22, pleaded guilty in May 2016 to charges of first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and burglary in connection with the deaths of Brown and McKoy.

Britt will be sentenced after Richardson’s trial, which is expected to last several weeks.

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