An argument between strangers last July led to one man dead and another destined for decades behind bars. In Albany County Criminal Court Thursday, the judge said the victim’s family may never find closure.
Just after 5p.m. on July 9, 2024, police responded to reports of a shooting on the 400 block of Delaware Avenue. Through an investigation, police say Jahmell Manso approached Davyjian Grier’s vehicle on foot in the City Square Plaza parking lot, pulled out a gun, and fired 13 shots as Grier attempted to drive away.
Nearby video surveillance captured Manso continuing to shoot at Grier’s vehicle across the street. Grier crashed into a parked car in a Stewart’s parking lot at the corner of Delaware Ave. and Southern Boulevard. A woman and two children, who were unharmed, were in the car.
Manso fled the scene. He was later located in Virginia, where he was arrested in December by local authorities who had assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service.
On Thursday, Manso was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the killing of Grier. Manso, who did not speak during the sentencing, also waived his right to appeal the sentence.
In a victim impact statement delivered during the sentencing, Grier’s mother, TaShiera Grier, said the day before her 21-year-old son was murdered, he took his brother and sister to that same Stewart’s to get ice cream.
She called Manso a “murderer and a thief.”
“You don't belong out here on the streets. I'm sorry. You don't belong out here on the streets. You had no regards for anybody. I'm so sorry,” Grier said. “You had no regards for anybody outside that day there were children in that vehicle. You had no regards for the children that were in that vehicle. Got my son for 21 years, and I don't think you should serve a day less than that.”
Grier’s grandmother, Marie Grier, also spoke before the court. She was the one who first found out about Grier’s death, screaming and nearly unable to break the news to her daughter. Grier says she is numb and often unable to find reality.
“I often wonder if he would have gotten married,” Grier said. “I wonder if he would have grown into the man he was trying so hard to become. Your honor, on July 9, at approximately 5:30 p.m. I received the phone call that changed our family's life.”
Manso and Grier are believed to have been involved in a verbal dispute prior to the shooting. Manso and Grier did not know each other.
Albany County Court Judge William Little says in his decades of service, he has never sat next to someone who he has felt has lost as much of a sense of happiness or joy as Grier’s grandmother.
“I don't think I've ever, ever felt that before sitting in this chair, you know, unfortunately to the family, you're never going to really find closure,” Little said. “I know they're going to tell you that they're going to say this thing about closure to try to make you feel better, but that doesn't happen.”
