when-y denita was murdered? now, three years later. two families filed into the courthouse. one family hoping for a conviction. the other and acquittal. reporter jon mccann covered the trial for the durham herald sun. the tone was definitely somber. ty shannon s family here and denita see people on the other side. he tense is a good word for it. especially tense for denita mother shannon. who for the first time made eye contact for the woman accused of murdering her daughter. or if she would look at me with this little s murky look on her face. she was very cocky. like she knew she was going to get off. no remorse. he she did not feel she had done anything. assistant da david sacks, and if spurious savvy
department, detectives wanted to know more about shannon s relationship with jamere stroud. so they interviewed jamere, who was cooperative but guarded. he said, yeah, she caught my eye. i mean, she s 5 10 . long, pretty hair. thin. we spoke for a short time. that was in 2000. around 2004, they bumped in again through work. and he asked her for her number. and at this point, he s involved with denita. involved with denita. and he actually said that he told shannon in 2000 that he was involved with denita. well, in 2004, they start having a relationship that actually started kind of like friendly. but then turned sexual toward the end of 2004. and shannon drives a burgundy suv. correct. first, detectives had a murder. now, a love triangle. detective pate pressed jamere for more details about the two women in his life.
friends that the woman accused of killing her was sitting in the durham county jail. shannon crawley had been arrested the day before and charged with first-degree murder. now her family was mourning, too. it s devastating, the fear that you have at that point for your child. and no one can convince me that my child did that. i know her. i m not saying that they framed her. i m saying that they simply allowed themselves to be led in that direction. and if they had any suspicions that another police officer was involved, they decided not to follow that up. you were in law enforcement. you cover up crimes by other officers? no, i never did. and what you re suggesting is that durham cops, who didn t even know jermeir, looked away from a murder committed by a guy who worked for another department in another city? they re risking prison time for this guy they don t even know? cops will protect other cops regardless of what department they re in. there are always that few, not
denita was a light in this dark world. she had a beautiful spirit. she was loving. she was kind. she was supportive. she embodied everything that was positive and about supporting people. there was no one who didn t like her. right. she was real respected and well-loved. especially, by her fiance jamere stroud, who appeared devastated by denita s death. jamere didn t say anything. jamere cried. we all cried. he didn t really say a whole lot. jamere and denita had met back in college and became the it couple on campus. they had been dating for a few years. and, you know, before i even met him, denita spoke very highly of him. what d she say? like, he s a gentleman. he s intelligent. he s active, involved, well-rounded, he s kind, he respects me, he protects me. he s loving. the perfect guy. the perfect guy. the perfect guy.
did find one thing. the bullet that killed denita. police now hoped that mangled slug might provide a lead on who pulled the trigger. what kind of gun killed denita smith? all we can say is that the bullet itself was in the family of it had enough weight to be a .38 caliber round. by now, denita s death was big news across durham. durham investigators say this shooting was not a random act. david sacks, assistant district attorney at the time, was keeping a close eye on this now high-profile case. one that he might actually prosecute if a killer was ever caught. it was so obvious that it was not a robbery. and so if she was targeted for some reason, there was a very, very, very, very limited number of people who would target denita for something like this. and jamere certainly could ve been one of em. jamere stroud. denita smith s fiance. on the day of the murder, stroud had revealed to police his romance with