NC man who cut Uber driver’s throat is convicted of murder, sent to prison for life
As a resurging pandemic shut down most of the Mecklenburg County Courthouse this week, the homicide trial of Diontray Adams pushed ahead toward a verdict.
Prosecutors believed that the family of Adams’ victim, slain Charlotte Uber driver Marlo Johnis Medina-Chevez, had waited long enough.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the wait ended.
Four years and three months after Medina-Chevez’ disappearance, a Mecklenburg jury took less than an hour to convict Adams of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Superior Court Judge Lou Trosch then sentenced the 29-year-old Charlotte man to the mandatory life in prison without parole.
Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in Uber driver’s death
Medina-Chevez’ wife and daughter spoke to the judge before the convicted killer’s punishment was handed down.
The murder of the 44-year-old Uber driver shocked the city with its random violence. Medina-Chevez left home on the night of May 20, 2017, in his blue Nissan Pathfinder to pick up customers and never returned.
Investigators with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department found that the victim’s debit card had been used in Maryland.
Two days later, the blue Pathfinder was seen near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. When Maryland authorities stopped the vehicle, Adams and companion James Aaron Stevens were among the occupants.
An FBI phone analysis revealed that the pair had been in Rock Hill around the time of the driver’s disappearance. A police dog located Medina-Chevez’ body in a field along Mount Gallant Road. His hands and legs had been bound with duct tape. His throat had been cut.
When accused killer of Uber driver came to court, victim’s friends, family were waiting
More than four years later, the final days of Adams’ three-week trial unfolded against the backdrop of a billowing pandemic. Much of the courthouse’s activity was shut down this week after a growing number of workers in the clerk of court’s office tested positive for COVID-19 or were ordered to quarantine.
With all but closing arguments and the jury deliberations remaining, Adams’ trial pushed on. A delay would have forced Trosch to throw out more than two weeks of testimony and begin the trial anew.
Stevens, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in July 2018, was the prosecution’s key witness. He told the jury how he and Adams planned to rob an Uber driver on the night Medina-Chevez disappeared.
He turned out to be that driver.
Well into the ride the night of May 20, according to Stevens’ testimony, Adams pulled a BB pistol that resembled a real handgun. When Medina-Chevez grabbed the gun and fought back, Adams dragged the driver into the backseat and cut his throat with a utility knife.
Stevens will be sentenced later.
On Thursday, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather thanked courthouse officials — as well as guidance from the county health department — for allowing the trial to reach its conclusion, despite the viral outbreak at the courtroom’s doors.
“... All parties believed a trial of this significance already in progress could be allowed to resume safely for its final stages,” he said in a statement to the Observer.
“While our community’s court system continues to grapple with this pandemic, we are happy to see that the painful wait for justice for Mr. Medina-Chevez’s family has finally come to an end.”
