The North Carolina Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a former Graham man who was sentenced in 2023 to life in prison for first-degree murder stemming from a drive-by shooting in Burlington in September 2019.
Jeremiah Ezeil Hardaway, 25, black, male, appealed his conviction on grounds that Wake County visiting special superior court judge Craig Croom had erred in denying his Batson challenge to the prosecutor’s “peremptory challenge” that resulted in the exclusion of a potential juror, a black male identified as “Eric M,” based on his race.
Hardaway also unsuccessfully appealed his conviction based on his claim that Croom, the visiting judge who presided over his trial in Alamance County superior court in September 2023, had erred in denying his motion to dismiss all charges due to insufficient evidence. (Several related, lesser felony charges were subsequently dismissed.)
Hardaway was convicted of murdering Myson Russell, Jr. in Burlington in conjunction with what initially began as an argument between two groups of people at a Walmart on September 8, 2019. The argument “continued online through messages on social media platforms” and escalated to the shooting the next night, according to the case background…