By Mark Darrough - August 21, 2019
WILMINGTON — Freddie Fralin was sentenced to 25 to 31 years imprisonment for a fatal shooting in the Northside district two years ago.
On Tuesday, Fralin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Judge Phyllis Gorham sentenced Fralin to 300 months with a maximum term of 372 months at the New Hanover County Courthouse on Wednesday morning.
The victim, Montez Greene, 27 at the time of the shooting, died after being shot on Nixon Street just north of downtown Wilmington on July 28, 2017. Greene’s mother and uncle both spoke at the sentencing hearing.
“My son has been taken from me,” Deborah Greene Miller told Judge Gorham. “He was a very humble child … [M]y son can’t walk these streets no more, and I do not want the person who murdered him to walk these streets no more.”
His uncle, Anthony Smith, then stood to speak in front of the court.
“Montez was a very loyal and humble young man … He did not deserve to die, shot like that like a dog in the streets for the simple fact that his hands were empty. And before the trigger was squeezed, you could obviously see that his hands were empty. You did what you did intentionally,” Smith told the defendant.
Smith said his nephew stood out in a generation of young people who are “not trying to learn anything, not trying to do anything.”
“Something has to be done. Everybody has to live in fear … It hurts, your honor, to see such a bright light cut out so early,” Smith told the judge.
Assistant District Attorney Bradley Matthews, lead prosecutor in the case, said all evidence gathered during the course of the investigation showed that Greene was unarmed on the day of the fatal shooting.
“It was a senseless act of violence … He did not provoke this; he never laid a finger on the defendant,” Matthews said.
After standing to receive his sentencing, Fralin turned and spoke with family members and friends who were gathered on the right side of the courthouse. He was then handcuffed by a county deputy before being led out of the courtroom.
Fralin will serve his time in the North Carolina Department of Federal Corrections, with credit given for time served since the original charges were brought against him.
State records show Fralin has an extensive criminal history, including various charges for possession and distribution of drugs and possession of stolen goods.
In 2016, he was sentenced to 10 months for possessing and selling Schedule 1 narcotics.
[Read the story as published here.]