Conviction handed down in murder-for-hire conspiracy case

MOBILE, Alas. (VALA) – A jury on Friday afternoon convicted three defendants in a murder-for-hire plot that federal prosecutors have called a reign of terror in two states.

Prosecutors and lawyers for three people accused of plotting to kill a man have been brought in. closing arguments on Thursday in federal court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gaylard Sam Ladd made the case that two nightclub shootings within months of each other in Mobile in 2022, a shooting later that year at a Walmart on Interstate 65, and a murder during an attempted carjacking near a casino in Mississippi were interconnected.

For more than two weeks, prosecutors presented evidence proving John Fitzgerald McCarroll Jr. was the mastermind of a failed plot to kill man Milton Carter as revenge for the 2020 death of another man.

McCarroll’s girlfriend Litheria Hollis and accused hitman Darius D. Roser were also charged in the case. Roser was accused of shooting into the paparazzi lounge in a second failed attempt to kill Carter.

From left to right: John McCarroll, Darrius Roser, Litheria Hollis.(Mobile County Metro Jail)

McCarroll and Roser were found guilty of all charges. The guilty Hollis was found guilty of everything except witness tampering.

CONNECTED: Mobile man – reluctantly – admits his role in murder-for-hire scheme

Prosecutors said a case of mistaken identity led to the shooting death of Derrick Shavers at the Bank Nightlife club on Azalea Road in September 2022. shooting in the paparazzi hall four people were wounded on Dauphine Street, including a young woman who is now paralyzed.

Prosecutors also said two other acts of violence were part of the plot, but not attempts on Carter’s life. They involved shooting death of Nikolaus Craig in his car near the Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort in D’Iberville, Mississippi, and shooting at Walmart store exit from I-65 in December 2022.

Hollis and Roser did not testify during the trial, and their lawyers did not call witnesses. McCarroll spent two days in court denying involvement in the shootings, carjacking and murder in a Mississippi casino parking lot and the Walmart shooting.

The defendants could face life imprisonment. Sentencing is scheduled for March.