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Suspect pleads guilty to killing man during drug deal near JCSU

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More than a year after the murder, a man was sentenced to spend 16 years in prison for killing a man during a drug deal in Charlotte.

18-year-old Raheem Amontae House was arrested and charged in October 2017 with the murder of 21-year-old Trenton Malik Stevenson.

House was sentenced Thursday to at least 16 years in prison for the murder.

The prosecutor said House and Stevenson had met in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken on West Trade Street near Johnson C. Smith University in 2017 when the shooting happened.

House's attorney said he had never been in trouble before and was selling marijuana to help pay for his expenses at Johnson and Wales and that he was remorseful for what happened.

(Raheem House)

Stevenson's mother was in the courtroom Thursday and said she still does not understand.

"I still can't understand it, why he took my son's life for nothing. I just want him to know that you've taken something that can never be replaced," Stevenson's mother said.

Police said the shooting happened in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken. JCSU students told Channel 9 that they were walking to class when they heard gunshots.

"We heard 'Pop pop pop pop pop' and everybody on campus got low because we didn't know if it was on campus cause it sounded like it was right beside us," student Aysia Jones said.

Upon arrival, officers found a man with an apparent gunshot wound in the parking lot. The victim was transported to Carolinas Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

Channel 9 spoke to Antonio Brown who said the victim is his friend.

"You never think that last time you seen somebody could actually be the last time you see them," Brown siad.

CMPD said that the suspect was found down the street from scene of the shooting at a Bojangle's restaurant.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said  this was the city's 69th homicide of 2017.

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