In the late hours of a January night in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the life of 13-year-old Carleone Woodland Jr. was tragically cut short. Just before midnight on January 30, 2023, officers responded to reports of gunfire in the 800 block of Speed Street. At the scene, they discovered two other teenagers, both 15, who had sustained non-fatal gunshot wounds—one to the arm and the other to the foot. A short time later, another call led police to a vehicle that had stopped near the intersection of Clay Street and Mission 66. Inside was Carleone Woodland Jr., who had suffered a single gunshot wound to his chest. He was rushed by ambulance to Merit Health River Region Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Vicksburg Police Department swiftly launched a homicide investigation into the shooting, which also injured the two other juveniles. Their efforts quickly led to the identification and arrest of three initial suspects. These individuals were 19-year-old Koury Demichael Lawrence and two 15-year-olds, Phillip Lewis Moore Jr. and Demetrius Lee Cormier. All three were charged with first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault.
As the investigation continued, a fourth suspect was apprehended nearly a year after the tragic event. On January 19, 2024, 17-year-old Demarcus Quinterious Wilson was arrested and also charged with murder and three counts of aggravated assault in connection with Woodland's death. Following his arrest, Wilson was arraigned and his bond was set at $3.5 million before he was bound over to the Warren County Grand Jury.
The legal proceedings for the accused have seen some developments. Koury DeMichael Lawrence, who had been held in the Warren County Jail since the incident, had his bond reduced from $500,000 to $100,000 in January 2025. The reduction was granted because the prosecutor's office had not yet received the complete case file from the Vicksburg Police Department, making it difficult to present the case to a grand jury for indictment. In a separate incident while incarcerated, Lawrence was accused of assaulting another inmate and was subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison for violating his probation on a prior charge. He still awaits trial for the murder charge.
