Jerry Pointer, 37, pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 45 years in prison without the possibility for parole. He also agreed to waive his appeals in the settlement approved by the victims’ families and by Criminal Court Judge John Campbell.

On Jan. 9, 2017, police were called to an apartment in the 2800 block of Coach Drive in Raleigh where they found Jeremy Bryant, 29, and Tashayla Johnson, 21, dead of multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators developed Pointer as a suspect and he admitted to killing both victims because he owed them a large amount of money from drug purchases over the past year. He said he wanted to “end my situation.”

The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Kirby May and Asst. Dist. Atty. Will Muller of the of the DA’s Community Prosecution Unit in Criminal Court Division 6 which handles all felony cases out of the Raleigh-Frayser area’s Old Allen Precinct.