Habitual offender trial set for Deliezha Gravely in December
Oct. 4—PRINCETON — A trial date was set Monday for a Mercer County man facing the possibility of life in prison after being charged last September as a habitual offender.
Deliezha Devonte Gravely, 27, of Bluefield was brought before Circuit Court Judge William Sadler for a habitual offender information arraignment. Gravely was charged Sept. 15 as a habitual offender. A trial date was set for December.
Gravely has been convicted of four charges, according to Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Lauren Lynch.
"He has a possession with intent to deliver charge of marijuana in North Carolina, and then he had a fleeing from an officer while driving under the influence, conspiracy to commit robbery and his most recent conviction is felon in possession of a firearm," Lynch said after the hearing.
If found guilty of recidivism, being a habitual offender, Gravely would have a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years, she said.
In January, Gravely pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery. He had been charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in the Dec. 22, 2019 shooting death of Edward Earl Duck III of Ohio. Deputies with the Mercer County Sheriff's Department found Duck in a car parked outside a Brushfork Road home while answering a complaint from a male individual who told dispatchers that he had been shot. Duck later died at Bluefield Regional Medical Center.
During his plea hearing on Jan.27, Judge Sadler asked Gravely if he was entering into a best-interest plea because he did not want to risk being found guilty of crimes with higher penalties. Gravely replied this was why he was pleading guilty.
Gravely, who had spent a year in jail and on home confinement since his arrest, was sentenced to time served. Conspiracy to commit robbery has a possible sentence of one to five years in prison.
Lynch said after Gravely's plea hearing in January that a local drug dealer had recruited Duck to sell drugs in Mercer County. A co-defendant in the murder case, Andrea Fry, had been assigned to show Duck around the area and learned that he carried money with him. All of the state's information about the shooting came from Fry, but there were problems with her creditability. Duck gave 911 dispatchers a different account of the shooting, and told deputies that his name was Bobby Campbell. He told dispatcher that it was a drive-by shooting and he did not know who had shot him.
In a later case, Gravely was charged with attempted murder, malicious wounding, prohibited person with a firearm, wanton endangerment and conspiracy after a 7-year-boy and a 16-year-old boy were injured May 3 during a drive-by shooting on Frederick Street in Bluefield.
Detective-Lieutenant K.L. Adams of the Bluefield Police Department testified May 12 during Gravely's preliminary hearing that Gravely told him during an interview that he was at the scene of the shooting while carrying an AR-15 rifle. Gravely said he tried to fire the rifle, but it would not go off. A home surveillance video showed Gravely "hanging out" of a suspect vehicle's passenger-side window with the AR-15. Video evidence also show muzzle flashes coming from the passenger side.
Lynch said the drive-by shooting case was not part of the habitual offender case.
"We haven't even indicted on those new charges yet, so that's a completely separate case than everything else we're looking at," she said.
Gravely is currently being held without bond at the Southern Regional Jail.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
