‘My son was my rock.’ Mother reacts to trial verdict in son’s Columbus street shooting

It took a Columbus jury about nine hours over two days to deliver Delilah Dukes the justice she wanted for her son Joseph.

She got what she wanted: Guilty on all counts, was the verdict on Deante Caruthers, convicted of gunning down Dukes in the street on Jan. 20, 2021, when they stopped their cars and got out to settle a dispute.

Recorded on nearby home security cameras, they stood face to face, before Caruthers three times shot Dukes, who died after wrecking his car driving away.

Dukes was 38, and had eight children, including a son who never knew his father.

“The 3-year-old never met him,” Delilah Dukes said after Monday’s verdict. “He was born 18 days after my son was killed.”

Now the man convicted of killing him faces life in prison. Caruthers, at the time of Dukes’ death a first offender for a gun theft, but no other criminal record, is 32.

Caruthers’ first offender status meant that had he completed his probation, his record would have been cleared.

Now, because of that previous offense, he could be sentenced to life without parole.

Judge John Martin set the sentencing for 1 p.m., Thursday.

What sparked dispute

Caruther’s previous offense involved Joseph Dukes: It was a December 2018 stolen gun case in which both were charged, but only Caruthers pleaded guilty, to theft by receiving stolen property.

He got five years probation in July 2019.

Prosecutors dropped all of Dukes’ charges, including one count of being a felon with a firearm, because of a 2004 conviction for entering an auto.

Lead defense attorney William Kendrick said Caruthers took the blame for the 2018 gun charge to free Dukes, and had complained about it, sparking the confrontation.

Kendrick said Dukes was the aggressor, and Caruthers was justified in defending himself, if he had to.

Delilah Dukes said she felt her son was vilified by that.

“It didn’t really show to me, my son, and how innocent he was,” she said. “They tried to make him out to be the bad guy, but justice was served today, so my son was an innocent person, going on with his life, and he was shot in the streets of Columbus like a dog at the OK Corral.”

Humor and devotion

The jury reached its verdict around 4 p.m., Monday. Besides murder, it found Caruthers guilty of aggravated assault, using a gun to commit a felony and being a first offender with a firearm.

Delilah Dukes afterward embraced lead prosecutor Austin Hammock and victim advocates with the district attorney’s office. Hammock declined to comment on the outcome.

Remembering her son, as she stood with his children outside the courtroom, Delilah Dukes said he was devoted to his family, and he faithfully saw to her needs after her husband died.

“I could always depend on him. If I needed anything, he was always there,” she said. “My husband passed away in 2011, and my son was my rock. And when he got killed, it took so much, not just from me, but from his kids.”

She’ll never forget his sense of humor, she said.

“He could always make you laugh.”