Sixteen months have passed since Sandra Grace opened her door to find detectives bearing bad news. Her son, Diondre Overton, a two-time national champion wide receiver who starred at Clemson, had been fatally shot at a house party in Greensboro, North Carolina. The loss remains ever-present, even as the family presses forward in its pursuit of justice. So, as 22-year-old Jeremiah Blanks’ first-degree murder trial moves through the court system, Grace has made her position clear: if they must live a lifetime without their beloved “Big Play Dre,” the person accused of taking him away deserves the same fate.
“We have a life sentence,” she shared with The State. “I’ll never see Dre again. I’ll never have a conversation with him again. … And if you have the disregard for life that you will take somebody’s life, knowing that they can’t come back, then I think you should serve the rest of your life in prison as well.”
Blanks is charged with first-degree murder, classified as a Class A felony under North Carolina law. It allows for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. And that’s precisely the outcome the Overton family is demanding. They have made it clear that they want no plea deals, no sentence reductions, no compromises in a punishment that they see justified, given the irreversible nature of their loss…