Jamal Weeks, a 35-year-old Black man from Dover, Delaware, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of July 13, 2015. The shooting occurred at approximately 2:17 a.m. in the 900 block of West North Street, in the Simon Circle neighborhood. Weeks later died from his injuries, making his death the fifth homicide recorded in Dover that year. Police initially reported that the person who shot him had not been identified.
Dover Police Department detectives began interviewing potential witnesses and residents in the surrounding area as they worked to reconstruct what had happened. Authorities also appealed to the public for information, offering ways for witnesses to provide tips anonymously. Evidence from the city’s surveillance system helped identify the shooter: according to the Delaware Department of Justice, municipal cameras captured Erick Morton shooting Weeks.
On July 22, 2015, Dover police announced that Morton, a resident of Magnolia, had been arrested in connection with the killing. Officers took him into custody without incident when he arrived at the Dover Probation and Parole office for a routine check-in appointment that Monday afternoon. He was brought to police headquarters for questioning and subsequently charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, possession of ammunition by a person prohibited, and carrying a concealed deadly weapon. Following his arrest, Morton was held at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
As the criminal case began, Weeks’s family announced arrangements for his funeral. Born on October 18, 1979, he was the son of Orrin Teat and Shirley Ann Weeks. A service was scheduled for July 24, 2015, at Bennie Smith Funeral Home in Dover, preceded by a two-hour public viewing, with burial planned at Barratts Chapel Cemetery in Frederica. Friends who left messages in his memorial guest book remembered his kindness and friendship and expressed sorrow that he had been taken from his family.
Morton ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Weeks’s death. In an announcement dated July 22, 2016, the Delaware Department of Justice reported that Deputy Attorney General Stephen Welch had secured his sentence before Judge William Witham. The judge imposed a 20-year prison sentence, suspended after five years of incarceration, followed by six months of Level IV work release, one year of Level III probation, and one year of Level II probation. The documented outcome was therefore a manslaughter conviction through a guilty plea, rather than a first-degree murder conviction at trial. The sentencing announcement did not explain the circumstances behind the plea to the lesser charge or identify a motive for the shooting.
