Ashanti Bellamy, a 22-year-old Black woman from the Fayetteville, North Carolina, area, was described by her mother as fun, energetic, and with her whole life ahead of her. A mother to a three-year-old child, she was also about six months pregnant when her life was tragically taken on May 17, 2021.
On that Monday evening, just after 9 p.m., Ashanti and her boyfriend, Gharen Terry, were on Ryder Court when they were physically attacked by two men.
The assailants forced the couple at gunpoint into a black Mercedes and drove them about a mile and a half away to the 800 block of Ridge Road. There, Ashanti and Gharen were able to get out of the car, but one of the men, Raymond Earl Holmes Jr., opened fire on them as they tried to escape.
Gharen was shot but managed to get away and hide, surviving his injuries. Ashanti was struck by gunfire in the back and leg and collapsed in the road. A witness later told investigators that Holmes then walked over to where she lay, kicked her in the head, and shot her two more times. First responders found Ashanti and Gharen in the road and took them to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Gharen was treated and released, but Ashanti succumbed to her wounds and was pronounced dead. Her unborn child also died from what an autopsy report described as maternal blood loss.
The Fayetteville Police Department’s investigation led to the arrests of two men. On May 27, 2021, Raymond Earl Holmes Jr., 41, was arrested at his home by police and members of the United States Marshals Task Force. On July 7, 2021, authorities arrested the second suspect, 19-year-old Sincere Perry, in the nearby town of Hope Mills. Both men faced extensive charges, including first-degree murder, murder of an unborn child, kidnapping, and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
The case concluded with both men entering Alford pleas, in which a defendant maintains innocence but admits the state has enough evidence for a conviction. In November 2023, Sincere Perry pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to a maximum of nearly seven years in prison. His co-defendant, Raymond Earl Holmes Jr., entered an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter in Cumberland County Superior Court on March 12, 2024. In exchange for his plea, numerous other charges against him were dismissed. Holmes was sentenced to a maximum of seven years and nine months in prison, concluding the case in March 2024.
