JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – A man pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the 2024 shooting death of 19-year-old Terrance Grant at Windsor Place Apartments.
Jonathan Lee Mills Jr. entered the Onslow County Superior Courthouse with his head down. He was sentenced to a minimum of 21 years in prison.
Mills had been charged with an open count of murder in Grant’s death. Prosecutors said Grant was shot twice, once in the abdomen and once in the back of the head, on May 12, 2024, at Windsor Place Apartments. Grant was later pronounced dead.
Mills stood next to his attorney to enter his plea. He read a statement lasting several minutes, asking the victim’s family for forgiveness.
Prosecutors said a fight led up to the shooting. Mills’ attorney in court said his client lost the fight. The statement drew a verbal reaction from the victim’s family in court, which the judge stopped.
Prosecutors said that in phone calls with his mother and girlfriend, Mills said he felt “disrespected and felt like they were trying to punk him.”
After the shooting, Mills left the scene. He was arrested the next morning after abandoning his phone and the murder weapon in the woods, according to District Attorney Ernie Lee.
Mills was also charged with malicious conduct by a prisoner for spitting on an officer. He pled guilty.
Grant’s mother, Shelia Grice, addressed Mills in court through tears, saying she cannot forgive him.
“For someone to sit here and ask for forgiveness, I know God wants us to forgive, but I can’t do that right now,” Grice said.
Grice said a part of her died the day her son was killed and says that she now hates Mother’s Day, which was the day the murder happened.
“As I said in the courtroom, I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. For anyone who hasn’t ever lost a child, a part of you leaves this world along with your child,” Grice said.
Grice called Mills weak for shooting her son after losing a fight.
“That’s just weak. You’re weak. Just like his lawyer said, he got beat. It takes a real man to walk away because if you were thinking, if I do this to him, I’m throwing my life away,” Grice said.
District Attorney Ernie Lee said he was surprised Mills made a statement in court.
“You usually don’t hear a lot of statements from defendants like this, but at least he was gracious in his statement to the family. And I hope he does learn from this. He is going to be in prison for quite some time. I hope he can change his life to some extent,” Lee said.
Lee said he sees cases like this often in his district.
“It was two individuals who knew each other arguing. One of them thought the other was disrespecting him. As a result, he pulled a gun out and killed him. I see this over and over in my district, completely senseless killings,” Lee said.
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