CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — The man accused of killing a sanitation worker in southwest Charlotte more than three years ago pleaded guilty Thursday.
Justus Moss pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to at least 18 and a half years in a psychiatric unit in the prison system.
Moss has already served more than three years while under psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Doctors said that at the time of the murder, Moss was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was hallucinating and hearing voices. In April 2008, Demetrio Colvillo pulled his truck onto a property near Moss' home to pick up a portable toilet. Moss walked outside and shot Colvillo while he was sitting in his truck.
Colvillo's wife told the courtroom Thursday that she was pregnant at the time so her daughter never got to meet her father. She read letters from her children and a letter she wrote at the hearing.
"We are here to ask you that justice be done, that this person be disciplined. The grief and pain I feel knowing my children no longer have their father is unbearable," she said.
Moss also addressed the courtroom.
"It was hell going through what I went through. I'm very, very sorry for what I did, now, because I know he was doing nothing wrong," he said.
Moss' attorney said he is on medication and under treatment for his illness now.