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GREENSBORO — Christon Eugene Tucker will spend the rest of his life in prison for what a judge called the brutal execution of a woman in front of her 4-year-old daughter.

A nine-woman, three-man jury on Friday convicted Tucker, 29, of first-degree murder and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon in the killing of 23-year-old Tiffany Knight.

“By the jury’s verdict and my review of the evidence in this case, you in fact executed Tiffany Knight,” Guilford County Superior Court Judge Stuart Albright told Tucker.

“She was defenseless, you left her for dead in front of her 4-year-old daughter, and you threatened to kill her 4-year-old daughter. You have shown no remorse whatsoever.”
Jurors deliberated almost nine hours .

According to witness testimony, Knight and Tucker had a romantic relationship that lasted for just under a month and was marred by sex, money, drugs and guns.

On Feb. 12, 2008, the night of the killing, Knight and Tucker had been arguing via cell phone text messages — threatening each other over drugs — when Tucker went to Knight’s apartment on Old Oak Ridge Road.

There, she let him into the apartment, and he turned on her and shot her in the face.

Testimony indicated the frightened woman ran to her bedroom to protect her 4-year-old daughter.

Knight struggled to keep Tucker from entering the bedroom. He reached around the door and shot her two more times. The daughter, who is now 6, witnessed her mother’s death.

The girl testified that Tucker told her, “I’m coming for you next” as he left. The girl stared Tucker down in the courtroom and identified him as her mother’s killer.

Other witnesses testified that Tucker threatened Knight before the killing and once stuck a gun to her head.

An acquaintance of Tucker’s — Catrina Zimmerman — came forward last week after almost two years of silence, saying Tucker confessed to her that he killed Knight and wanted help in concocting an alibi.

Zimmerman wasn’t scheduled to testify, but her appearance came out of a desire to do the right thing, said Assistant District Attorney Al Hubbard in closing arguments.

It may have been the testimony needed to seal Tucker’s fate. “It was the weight of the evidence and the testimony of one individual in particular (that swayed the jury)” said jury foreman Freeman Randolph Jones Jr.

Knight’s parents — Larry and Karen Knight — said they felt testimony from Zimmerman and their granddaughter were key to the guilty verdict.

“When she went on the stand, she said, 'I’m not afraid anymore. He’s afraid of me,’” Larry Knight said of his granddaughter. “(That night) she turned off the light in her closet for the first time.”

“She said 'I’m not afraid of you. I know you aren’t in here,’” Karen Knight added.

Despite the verdict, Tucker and his family continued to argue his innocence.

“There’s no way in hell I would take a life,” Tucker told Albright before his sentencing.

His mother, Christine Turner, said her son has confessed to his previous crimes and wouldn’t kill someone.

“He wouldn’t take a child’s mother away from her,” Turner said in the hallway after the verdict. Her husband, Thomas Turner, said the family is praying for the Knights. 

Christon Tucker’s lawyers said he will appeal the verdict.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com