Raleigh police following new leads in cold murder case

Jamie DeBerry, a 32-year-old father, was fatally shot at his Raleigh apartment on Oct. 31, 2009. His mother, Joyce DeBerry, will never forget the call from her brother-in-law telling her that her son was dead.

“He said he didn't make it,” she said. “I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He's said he's gone.”

“He just was a great person,” his sister, Jawanda Newsome, said. “I miss him, totally.”

David Moses and James Courtney were arrested in the case and went to trial in 2010. The charges were dismissed when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

“It's just unsettling how a person's life means nothing to the justice system,” Joyce DeBerry said.

Raleigh police filed search warrants last week for the cellphones of Moses and Courtney, and a DNA swab from a man whose fingerprint was found on the victim’s vehicle. According to the warrants, the man was interviewed previously and said he did not know the victim and was never in Raleigh. But he later admitted to knowing James Courtney.

WRAL News is not naming the man because he has not been identified as a suspect.

Police would not divulge details of the investigation but acknowledge they are looking at new leads.

“I feel that somebody's on my side,” Joyce DeBerry said after learning about the development.

Newsome added, “My mother texted me and was like, ‘Don't get too excited.’ I'm just, like, how can you not, but in the same token, we have to take it slow.”

DeBerry said she’s hoping the new turn in the case will lead to closure for her and her family.