Guitly plea in Ridgeland Acres double murder

Dryan Escabedo Vereen

    A guilty plea in a five-year-old murder case will send a Tabor City man to prison for up to 20 years, District Attorney Jon David announced Wednesday.
    Dryan Escabedo Vereen, 26, entered the guilty plea before Resident Superior Court Judge Doug Sasser in Whiteville on Wednesday, admitting his role in the Dec. 12, 2010 killings of Lee Otis Vereen and Jerome Williams in the Ridgeland Acres community east of Tabor City.
    Dryan Vereen was sentenced to serve from 192 to 243 months in prison, 16 to a little more than 20 years.
    Dryan Vereen “intiated plans to rob Otis Vereen of drugs and money and during the robbery Otis Vereen and Jerome Williams were killed,” David said in a news release.
    Otis Vereen, who was 42, was shot and killed during the robbery, investigators said previously, Williams, who was 39 and Otis Vereen’s half-brother, was shot and killed as he fled, about 150 yards from their mother’s home.
    Two others charged in the case have already entered guilty pleas.
    Canisha Laporsha Bell, 24, of Tabor City, entered a guilty plea in January 2013 to a single charge of armed robbery, was sentenced to serve 38 to 55 months in prison after agreeing to testify against others in the case.
    Jacques Ali Vereen, 21, also of Tabor City, entered a guilty plea in July 2012 to a charge of being an accessory after the fact of robbery and murder. He was sentenced to serve from 44 to 62 months in prison.
    Ronald “Ronnie” Eugene Bellamy, 48, of Whiteville, entered guilty pleas to two counts of murder in December 2013 and was sentenced to serve from 200 to 249 months in prison.
    Still awaiting trial in the murders are Antwan Omar Wright, 27, of Whiteville and Jonathan Dewayne Gore, 27, of Tabor City. Wright is charged with both murders, Gore with being an accessory after the fact of murder.