Man enters plea after his murder trial stumped a Charlotte jury

A man who was arrested as a teen in a 2020 homicide pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Friday after a three-week trial stumped a Charlotte jury.

Derek Johnson Jr., now 22, was on trial for first-degree murder in the death of 28-year-old Marcus Withers when jurors told Superior Judge Karen Eady-Williams they were unable to reach a verdict, according to a news release from Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather.

She told them to keep deliberating, but then Johnson entered his plea and was sentenced to about 13 to 16 years in prison.

Withers was shot in his Skyland Avenue backyard, south of uptown, on June 10, 2020, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers arrested Johnson in September 2020, court documents show.

Withers’ mother previously told WCNC her son’s barber killed him.

Julia Coin

The Charlotte Observer

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Julia Coin covers courts, legal issues, police and public safety around Charlotte and is part of the Pulitzer-finalist team that covered Tropical Storm Helene in North Carolina. As the Observer’s breaking news reporter, she unveiled how fentanyl infiltrated local schools. Michigan-born and Florida-raised, she studied journalism at the University of Florida, where she covered statewide legislation, sexual assault on campus and Hurricane Ian in her hometown of Sanibel Island. Support my work with a digital subscription