When Vicki Hill heard the not-guilty verdicts Monday afternoon for Marcus Price, one of two men charged in her son’s murder, she jumped out of the chair she’d dutifully occupied for a week and busted through the doors of the courtroom.
“Are you f****** kidding me?” she screamed.
Hill collapsed in the hallway outside of the courtroom, screaming and crying. “Why?” she wailed at one point. “I can’t believe this,” she said at another.
A short time later, outside of the Summit County Courthouse, Hill was still distraught, questioning why her son, 17-year-old Ahmed Hill, wasn’t getting the justice he deserved. She was surrounded by family and friends during the weeklong trial who then comforted her when a jury found Price not guilty of aggravated murder and murder and guilty of tampering with evidence.
“The message is: ‘It’s OK to kill,’ ” said Hill, 33, of Akron.
The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for about three hours Monday before returning its verdict.
Price, 19, will be sentenced at 9 a.m. May 18 by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O’Brien. He faces up to three years in prison.
Price claimed he wasn’t the one who fired the execution-style shots at Hill on Feb. 15, 2015, in a West Akron alley. Instead, he put the blame on his co-defendant, David Quarterman, also 19, who got a deal from Summit County prosecutors in return for his testimony against Price.
“The jury came to the conclusion that Marcus has been saying the whole time,” said defense attorney Adam VanHo. “The right guy has already pleaded guilty in this case.”
Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Kevin Mayer said simply, “We’ve got to respect the verdict.”
Price’s trial began last Monday and included testimony by both Price and Quarterman.
Price and Quarterman were the only other people in the alley during the shooting and each pointed the finger at the other. The two know each other and grew up together in Akron.
Quarterman pleaded guilty in February to complicity to commit voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors dismissed charges of murder and tampering with evidence. He will be sentenced May 19 for this and an unrelated robbery in January, which he said was committed with the same 9 mm pistol used to kill Hill, a “community gun” passed around to whomever needed it among a group of teenage males in West Akron.
During her closing argument Monday morning, Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Jennie Shuki said the only evidence that Price didn’t pull the trigger was his own word and a story that changed several times since the shooting.
“Only Marcus Price’s story tells that he was not the shooter,” she said. “We ask that you find him guilty — and hold him accountable.”
VanHo, however, reiterated his claim that prosecutors “made a deal with the devil” in giving Quarterman a plea deal.
“You have a young man gunned down before his life really got started,” VanHo told the jurors. “It would be even more tragic to convict the wrong young man for his death.”
After the closing arguments and instructions from O’Brien, the jurors began deliberations about 1 p.m. Monday and announced that they had a verdict about 4 p.m.
The jurors declined to comment after being released by the judge.
Outside of the courthouse, Hill said she doesn’t understand how the jury could find Price guilty of tampering — for bleaching his hands and getting rid of the clothing and shoes he was wearing during the shooting — but not guilty of murder. She said she holds Price and Quarterman equally responsible for her son’s death.
“No justice was served,” she said, sobbing. “I feel the same way about both boys. One just got a deal and one is walking out of here a free man.”
Gia Hatcher, Ahmed Hill’s grandmother from North Carolina, hugged Hill to comfort her.
“This is just awful,” Hill said.
Hill said she is concerned about “black-on-black crime.” Her son, Quarterman and Price are all African-American.
“They will keep doing it,” she said. “It’s going to keep happening.”
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmithabj and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swarsmith.