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Greensboro man, 3 others sentenced in shootings

Tuesday, November 10, 2009
(Updated 3:02 pm)

WINSTON-SALEM (MCT) Four men pleaded guilty Monday in connection with a shooting in eastern Winston-Salem last summer that left two teenagers seriously wounded.

Christina Williams, the mother of one of the teenagers, Jamaz Vincent Williams, now 17, talked yesterday in Forsyth Superior Court about how her son had to go through the embarrassment of wearing a colostomy bag during recovery and still can't play basketball because of a bullet that ripped through his stomach and then lodged in one of his legs. Reginald Juan Jackson, now 19, was shot in the neck and has a bullet lodged in his face.

''This is my love," Williams said as her son stood by her side. "This is my treasure."

Prosecutors said that two of the four men were the shooters -- Reginald Lamont Funderburk, 23, of Greensboro and Matthew James Quentin Wharton, 21, of Charlotte. They each pleaded guilty to two consolidated counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill.

Judge Richard Stone of Forsyth Superior Court sentenced Funderburk to 7 to 10 years in prison. Wharton, who had a prior conviction for breaking and entering, was sentenced to 14 to 19 years in prison.

The two other defendants -- Matthew Raymond Mitchell, 21, and Kortney Donnell Crews, 21, both of Charlotte -- received less time because they cooperated in identifying Funderburk and Wharton as the shooters, said Assistant District Attorney Belinda Foster.

Mitchell and Crews each pleaded guilty to two consolidated counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and were sentenced to about 3 to 5 years in prison.

The shooting happened about 9 p.m. on July 18, 2008, on Prospect Drive, which is near Carver School Road.

Foster said that the four men were seeking revenge against a man Wharton believed shot his ex-girlfriend two weeks before and that Wharton learned that the man would be in Winston-Salem that day.

After arriving on Prospect Drive in a dark SUV, the men opened fire from the vehicle, catching Jackson and Williams in the line of fire.

Other people could have been hurt as well, Foster said. Children were playing outside, and there was a family gathering just up the street from where the shooting happened.

Christina Williams urged Funderburk and Wharton to turn their lives around and come out of prison as better men.

''You are beautiful men, and there's no reason for you to do this," she said.

Wharton and Funderburk both apologized yesterday.

Wharton said he hurt the victims' families and his own family, noting that his mother was in the courtroom crying.

''I was young and immature and not thinking," Wharton said. "Every action has a consequence."

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