Derambez Deante Morgan, a 26-year-old Black man from the Greenville and Simpsonville area, was working at a residential property in Inman, South Carolina, on the evening of November 20, 2020. Morgan and several others were performing repair work at a home on Bomar Street when the workday suddenly turned violent. At approximately 5:30 p.m., emergency dispatchers received a 911 call reporting a shooting at the property.
When officers arrived, they found Morgan suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.
Morgan had been shot several times in the back. He was transported to Spartanburg Medical Center, where he died from his injuries that evening. Investigators determined that the gunfire came from one of Morgan’s coworkers, Corey Mark Porter of Parkersburg, West Virginia. The shooting occurred while the men were at the Bomar Street job site, but later court proceedings would reveal sharply different accounts of what had led to the violence.
Police responded quickly enough to intercept Porter as he and two other people attempted to leave the scene in a vehicle. Officers took Porter into custody and recovered the handgun identified as the murder weapon from his possession. He was initially charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Available reports did not indicate that the two other people in the vehicle were charged in connection with Morgan’s death.
The loss devastated Morgan’s family, who remembered him as an ambitious, loving and positive person with plans for his future. He had worked as an inventory manager with Elite Events and had studied business management at South Carolina State University and Greenville Technical College. He was preparing to continue his education and hoped to build a career in business and real estate development. His family described him as someone whose smile and laughter could brighten a room and who believed strongly in encouraging others.
Porter’s case eventually went before a Spartanburg County jury in January 2023. During the three-day trial, prosecutors presented eyewitness accounts, testimony from law-enforcement officers and forensic evidence collected at the scene. The prosecution argued that the physical evidence showed Morgan had been repeatedly shot in the back and contradicted Porter’s explanation of the confrontation.
Porter testified in his own defense and claimed the shooting had occurred during a struggle over the handgun. He maintained that he acted in self-defense. Solicitor Barry Barnette challenged that account, telling jurors that Porter’s version of events was not consistent with the location of Morgan’s wounds or the other evidence gathered by investigators. The jury rejected the self-defense argument and found Porter guilty of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime on January 11, 2023.
Circuit Judge Derham Cole sentenced Porter to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The conviction brought the criminal case to a close more than two years after Morgan’s death, although his family emphasized that a prison sentence could not restore the future that had been taken from him. In his memory, relatives established the Derambez Morgan Foundation, an organization devoted to gun-violence prevention, conflict-resolution education, survivor support, youth programs and college scholarships.
