A man accused of murdering a woman in January 2015 chose not to plea guilty Tuesday.
Now, 18-year-old De’Auntay Moye is going to trial. He is accused of murdering Stephanie Waters of Roaring Spring.
Water’s mother spoke out Tuesday. She said she is angry Moye did not take the plea, dragging out the case even longer.
“He already admitted to what he did. So suck it up and, you know, yeah,” said Waters’ mother, Sally Harr. “Your son is a murderer. Sorry! My daughter didn’t ask, ‘Hey, shoot me back here. Not once, but twice. Take my life.’ That’s not what she said.”
Harr blamed the upbringing of the kids involved in the murder in an interview after a court hearing Tuesday. One of the accused murderer’s mothers said she never expected her son to be involved in something so terrible.
Tyesha Meek, De’Auntay Moye’s mother, said she has never spoken out before because this case has nothing to do with her. She said it is about the actions her son and others knowingly took and the consequences they will all have to face.
“Even a year and a half now it’s still unbelievable,” she said. “My son had some issues. Drugs and emotional issues. I’ve gotten him counselors. I’ve gotten him social workers. I put him in rehab. I’ve gotten him every help that I could get him. …It wasn’t no steps I didn’t take as a mother for my kid. Not one. But do I have it in my mind that he’s gonna walk out the door and go kill someone? No! Who’s thinking that? He was home by curfew! What reason did I have to question his actions that evening? None!”
Meek said she has faced a lot of scrutiny as Moye’s mother.
“How do you raise a murderer? That makes no sense,” she said, frustrated. “I am a mother of five. He is the oldest of five children. Who raises their child to be a murderer?”
Meek said whatever her son did, the evidence will speak for itself.
“I’m not here to protect him,” Meek said, “but the reality of it is none of us were there. Only people that know what happened are the people that were there. Not gonna say he didn’t play a role in it. He was there. But we don’t know what that role was.”
When asked if she thought her son is innocent, she thought about it for a moment.
“Not exactly,” she said. “Let me say that there’s a role he played. Obvious. Do I think he could have killed her? No.”
Now, the case is going to trial. The next step is a status conference set for July 5th, where Moye and his attorney will figure out how to move forward with the trial.
“I’m preparing myself for it either way,” Meek said. “If he didn’t do it, so be it. He still played some role ’cause he was there. He could have called the police. He could have even told me what happened. He chose not to for whatever reason and he will suffer for it.”
