Female cop pleads in 2020 murder case, possible motive identified | Archives

One woman, Jazmine Joanne Urrutia, 25, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in January as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to two years of supervised probation. A charge of accessory after the fact was dismissed.

Urrutia is obligated to testify in the other cases if called, according to a court document.

As part of his plea deal, Urrutia was ordered to have no contact with any of the six defendants in the case, one of whom was originally 17 years old and is not identified in court documents.

On May 30, Superior Court Judge C. Winston Gilchrist signed an order allowing Urrutia to depart for the Dominican Republic from August 7 to 12. The reason for the trip was not given.

Urrutia admitted to helping one of the men charged, Vicente Alvarez-Galarza, 23, hide in a hotel for a few days after the shooting.

Urrutia was being held on $75,000 bail. All five men were held without bail. The status of the minor at the time is unknown.

Most of the defendants were arrested in the days following the shooting, but Robert Dwayne Lee Jr., 25, was not arrested until October 2020, and Jadakis Kaesean Tysor, 24, was not arrested only in April 2021.

In a document filed by Sanford Police Detective WP Berryman, he noted that Richardson was shot at least once in the head.

Berryman requested search warrants for a blue 2008 Ford Fusion and a red 2008 Lexus.

Richardson was a passenger in the Fusion when she was shot, which was driven by a woman, Marcel Alston, according to a court document. Alston transported Richardson to an area hospital, where she died.

Alston said he heard several gunshots, the court document states, noting that the Fusion had a broken rear window and a hole in another part of the vehicle.

Officer T. McNeill heard 40 to 50 gunshots that he initially thought were fireworks, Berryman wrote.

McNeill said he saw three tall, thin black men running down a nearby street and a gray 2016 Honda Civic with a North Carolina tag and a red Lexus with a temporary tag parked nearby. The Civic's door was ajar.

Officers reportedly saw a handgun in the front passenger seat of the Civic, along with suspected marijuana.

The Civic was registered to Emrique Deangelo Lee, 25, one of the defendants, and Jennifer Alvarez. The Lexus was registered to Cynthia Alvarez-Galarza.

McNeill caught Rayshawn Ahmick Donaldson Jr., 24, one of three men running, after becoming separated from the other two, a court document says.

Donaldson allegedly admitted to being a passenger in the Honda, which he said was driven by Tysor. Donaldson reportedly said the men were armed and intended to shoot at the area for what happened to a man named Steve who he said had been shot earlier in the week.

According to a court document, Donaldson admitted to firing his gun and described the other firearms involved.

According to a previous Sanford Herald report, Emrique Deangelo Lee, Alvarez-Galarza, Donaldson and the 17-year-old man opened fire, said Capt. Vinnie Frazer of the Sanford Police Department. “Multiple” types of shell casings were recovered at the scene, indicating more than one weapon was fired.

Alvarez-Galarza and Emrique Deangelo Lee each have an administrative hearing on June 10 and Tysor has one on June 12.

Robert Dewayne Lee Jr. will have a hearing on September 23 and Donaldson will have one on December 16.

This is not the first time Emrique Deangelo Lee and Alvarez-Galarza have been involved in a shooting, according to an earlier article in the Sanford Herald.

North Carolina Department of Public Safety records show both men were on probation following a Feb. 6, 2018, shooting in Harnett County that injured a 14-year-old.

Lee was sentenced on October 23, 2019, to 36 months of probation for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Two days earlier, Álvarez received the same sentence for assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of a deadly weapon on state property.

Each of the five men was also charged with an additional crime of discharging a weapon into occupied property resulting in serious bodily injury.

Emrique Deangelo Lee and Alvarez-Galarza are also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.