In the early morning hours of March 11, 2021, a tragedy unfolded at the intersection of Augusta Drive and Raleigh Road in Lexington, Kentucky, that cut short the life of 18-year-old Montaye Isschar Mullins. Responding to a call, police discovered the young man with a gunshot wound. He was rushed to a local hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he died later that day.
The investigation into the shooting led Lexington police to two teenage suspects.
Michael Roland, who was 18 at the time of the incident, and a 17-year-old male, later identified as Larry Stevenson III, were arrested and faced serious charges of murder and robbery in connection with Mullins' death. Roland was apprehended in the same area where the shooting occurred. At the time of his arrest for the homicide, Roland was already facing other charges from a separate incident earlier that year, including robbery and marijuana trafficking.
As the case proceeded through the Fayette County court system, there was a significant development. Both Michael Roland, then 22, and Larry Stevenson III, then 20, chose to enter Alford pleas to the lesser charge of second-degree complicity to manslaughter. An Alford plea signifies that while the defendants do not admit guilt, they acknowledge that the prosecution has enough evidence to likely secure a conviction. This plea brought a form of legal closure to the case, though it could not erase the violent end to a young life.
