A 32-year-old Greenville man will spend up to nearly three years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an active-duty Marine sergeant inside a downtown Raleigh parking garage nearly two years ago. Spencer Wrightington was initially charged with second-degree murder after Sgt. Christian Oldham was fatally shot in the head while the two men were passing Oldham’s handgun back and forth inside Oldham’s car, believing it was unloaded.
Wake County Superior Court Resident Judge Keith Gregory sentenced Wrightington to a minimum of one year and eight months and a maximum of two years and nine months in prison, according to The News & Observer. The sentence falls in the aggravated range for someone with Wrightington’s criminal record, the outlet reported. Judge Gregory, appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2018 after eight years as a Wake County District Court judge and 15 years as a trial attorney, presides over Judicial District 10D in Wake County, according to INDY Week.
What Happened Inside the Garage
Raleigh Police Department officers responding to a reported shooting at approximately 6:22 a.m. on October 12, 2024, found Oldham on the second level of the parking garage in the 400 block of South Salisbury Street, according to a bulletin from the City of Raleigh. Wrightington told investigators that he and Oldham had been drinking at a party beforehand, per the News & Observer’s report. A detective wrote in a search warrant that Wrightington said Oldham racked the firearm’s slide and he then heard a pop, the paper’s account states.
Investigators believed Wrightington was holding the firearm when it went off, though he repeatedly stated, per the search warrant, that the shooting was an accident. Wrightington called 911 after the shooting and was arrested at the scene. He later spent 111 days in jail without bail before a judge approved his attorney’s motion to set a bail amount in January 2025, and Wrightington posted a $150,000 secured bail bond that same month.
An Inconclusive Manner of Death
The medical examiner ruled Oldham’s manner of death as inconclusive, and an autopsy report found it was unclear whether he was accidentally or intentionally shot. The autopsy also found Oldham’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.22 — nearly three times the legal driving limit, according to the News & Observer. Under North Carolina General Statutes § 14-269.3, state law bars carrying a handgun while consuming alcohol or while alcohol remains in the body, according to a summary from Carolina Attorneys…