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Former Alabama Football Player Pleads Guilty To Killing Nursing Student Over AirPods
Carlos Londarrius Stephens killed nursing student Destiny Washington outside the University of Alabama Birmingham student center in December of 2020, in a Facebook Marketplace transaction that turned deadly.
A former college football player has pleaded guilty to killing a nursing student outside the University of Alabama Birmingham student center.
A Jefferson Circuit Court clerk confirmed to People that Carlos Londarrius Stephens entered the plea Monday in the death of 20-year-old Destiny Washington, who was shot to death in December 2020 during a Facebook Marketplace transaction gone awry.
As part of the plea deal, Stephens received a 25-year sentence.
Stephens had been convicted of capital murder in Washington's death by a jury in April and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in May, but in July a judge threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial after determining that there had been juror misconduct, according to WBRC.
Rather than head back to trial, Stephens pleaded guilty to murder in court on Monday and accepted the reduced sentence, WBRC reported.
Oxygen.com reached out to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office to comment on the plea, but did not receive an immediate response.
Stephens, who played for the UAB football team during his freshman year in 2017, killed Washington the night of Dec. 17, 2020 after a transaction to sell a pair of AirPods for $90 went wrong.
Washington’s boyfriend, Keyuntae Moultrie, had brokered the deal with Stephens’ girlfriend, Victoria Roberts, on Facebook Marketplace earlier that day but, when Washington and Moultrie arrived at the a parking lot outside UAB’s student center location around 9:40 p.m., they encountered only Stephens, AL.com previously reported. Washington and her boyfriend arrived around half an hour after Stephens at the location of the buyer's choosing, prosecutors had told the jury at his first trial, and Stephens was already unhappy.
Stephens was waiting in a rental car and on the phone with Roberts when Moultrie approached his car, according to AL.com.
After seeing the AirPods, Stephens asked Moultrie if they were fake, and was angry when Moultrie, who said they were not, attempted to raise the price to $100. Moultrie then accused Stephens of paying him with counterfeit money, and snatched the AirPods back while throwing the allegedly counterfeit bill back into Stephens' vehicle.
Moultrie, who was carrying a licensed and registered gun, testified that he backed away from Stephens' rental car but pulled his firearm out while Stephens was seemingly reaching for his own. Moultrie testified that he never pointed his gun at Stephens, but Stephens testified that Moultrie menaced him with it.
Regardless, Moultrie then got into his car and was driving away when Stephens leaned out of his vehicle and shot at the back of Moultrie's — striking it on the license plate. The bullet then traveled through the vehicle and through the passenger seat where Washington was seated, according to the paper.
Washington was shot in the back by what prosecutors described as a .350 Legend hunting round.
Moultrie testified on the stand in April about Washington’s final moments, AL.com reported.
“Babe, I think I got shot,” she told Moultrie, who she had been dating since the 10th grade.
“Don’t tell me that,” he replied.
Washington stopped responding to him moments later. Moultrie rushed her to the nearest hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Washington, who had been enrolled in a dual enrollment program at UAB, was slated to graduate with her nursing degree from Lawson State in May of 2021.
Her mom, Tora Washington, said in court earlier this year that the 20-year-old had always wanted to help others.
“For career day at age six, she dressed the part,” Tora said. “She wanted to be a nurse. She was a people person and did not mind helping anyone.”
She described her daughter as having a “beautiful spirit with a bright smile that would light up a room.”
In the years since her daughter’s death, she said it has been a “tough battle.”
“We cannot explain the heartache and pain we endure daily,” she said. “I miss her texting daily just to say I love you. Her dad misses his baby girl running into the house just to give him a hug.”
