BY JOHN MCCANN

jmccann@heraldsun.com; 419-6601

DURHAM -- Another jury on Monday found Thaddius R. Wright guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and first-degree burglary.

"Lord, have mercy," Wright sighed at one point.

Superior Court Judge Cressie Thigpen Jr. sentenced him to a minimum of 116 months behind bars and a maximum of 149 months.

The judge gave Wright, 27, credit for the time he's already been incarcerated. He has been locked up since November 2004 when police nabbed him and two other guys in connection with the shooting of Reuben Garnett Jr. at Foxfire Apartments in north Durham, defense lawyer Woodrena Baker-Harrell said.

A jury in 2006 found Wright guilty of the charges. But he appealed the ruling based on racial bias during the jury-selection process.

Jerred D. Thompson and Jarrad L. Bishop were convicted as a result of the crimes at Foxfire Apartments.

During the recent trial, Baker-Harrell argued her client was with Thompson and Bishop at the would-be crime scene, but Wright got to the targeted apartment, changed his mind about following through with a planned attack and went back to the car in which he and the other two arrived.

Ellis contended Wright at the very least acted in concert with Thompson and Bishop to try to kill another human being.

Which was a sticking point when it was time to rule in this matter, juror William Crutchfield said.

On Friday when the jury began deliberating, the men and women with Wright's fate in their hands were leaning toward finding him not guilty of the assault charges because they didn't believe Assistant District Attorney Stormy Ellis' case was tight enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Wright shot Garnett, Crutchfield said.

But then the judge cleared up for jurors what it means for a defendant to have acted in concert with others associated with a crime. With that, Crutchfield said he and the other jurors were able to reason that if Wright by supposedly retreating from the apartment of the planned attack really was trying to back out, then he would not have just waited in the car for the other two to finish the crime but instead would have been more deliberate about leaving the scene. Hanging around likely meant Wright was looking to partake of the spoils with Bishop and Thompson, Crutchfield explained.

Three guns and two walkie-talkies linked to the crime scene were among the evidence Ellis presented to jurors. And police officers testified about tailing Wright, Thompson and Bishop in a high-speed chase that ended with a crash.

"I'm guilty now?" Wright rhetorically asked when security personnel escorted him from the courtroom before sentencing.

Later on, Wright hugged his lawyer and, not appearing particularly dejected, said, "It's all good."

Wright plans to appeal this ruling, too.