Delashon Andrews, a 23-year-old Black man from Kinston, North Carolina, lost his life in a shooting in the early morning hours of October 29, 2020. The incident occurred around 4:30 a.m. at the Paramount 3800 apartment complex on Bostic Drive in Greenville. When police arrived, they found Mr. Andrews deceased from gunshot wounds outside one of the buildings.
Two other men were also injured in the shooting.
Isaiah Payton, a 20-year-old from Kinston, and Darius Wayne, a 22-year-old resident of the apartment complex, were both transported to Vidant Medical Center with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. Investigators recovered three firearms at the scene and believed the people involved knew one another, but no immediate arrests were made, and the case went cold.
For years, the case remained unsolved. In March 2024, Greenville Police Detective Jeffrey Dixon was assigned to the case and, along with Pitt County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Veronica Johnson, began an extensive second investigation. The pair reexamined old evidence and reinterviewed people involved in the incident. This fresh look at the case led to new leads and a significant breakthrough.
The investigation revealed that Isaiah Payton had shot both Delashon Andrews and Darius Wayne. Detectives also determined that Payton was injured when Mr. Andrews returned fire during the altercation. In September 2024, authorities announced that they had charged Payton, then 24, in the killing. At the time, he was already serving a sentence at the Hyde County Correctional Institution for unrelated drug charges.
Payton was transferred to the Pitt County Detention Center and faced charges of one open count of murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and one count of possession of a stolen firearm.
Following his arrest, Isaiah Paul Payton, then 25, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of Delashon Andrews.
