Boy died as 150 shots hit Charlotte home. A third man has pleaded guilty, DA says
A third man has taken responsibility for his role in the notorious 2021 attack on a Charlotte home that killed a 3-year-old boy as he slept, Mecklenburg County prosecutors say.
Jacob Lanier, 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and accepted a lengthy prison sentence, Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather said in a Nov. 12 news release.
Two other suspects – Qua’Tonio Stephens and Kaleb Lawrence – pleaded guilty to the same charges in 2024, and are serving time in prison, records show.
All three are linked to a barrage of gunfire – at least 150 shots – that slammed a northwest Charlotte home in the dark, killing 3-year-old Asiah Figueroa, The Charlotte Observer reported in 2021. The boy’s 4-year-old sister was grazed by a bullet, but she recovered, officials said.
Lanier’s plea deal includes 216 to 272 months for second-degree murder and a concurrent sentence 125 to 162 months for conspiracy to comment murder, Merriweather said.
Stephens could stay in prison in excess of 15 years, and Lawrence could serve more than 13 years, North Carolina prison records show.
They were parties to a death that captured the attention of the community, much like the Aug. 22 stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line.
Mayor Vi Lyles condemned the killing of Asiah at a 2021 news conference, noting he died “because we can’t figure out how to live together.”
Charlotte Police Chief Johnny Jennings called the killing “senseless” at a news conference the following day.
“I want to speak directly to the ... the people that were involved in this shooting,” Jennings said. “How can you wake up this morning knowing that your actions last night took the life of a 3-year-old, who‘ll never get the opportunity to grow up and play and have fun.”
High school disputes
Video released by police shows the attack started around 11:45 p.m., when three men stood across the street from a home on Richard Rozzelle Drive and started shooting. Eleven people were inside at the time, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Neighbors told The Charlotte Observer the gunfire “lasted up to a minute” before the trio jumped into two vehicles and speed away.
Susie Whitley, the boy’s great-grandmother, told WBTV that she knew heard gunshots hitting her front door. Then she heard her granddaughter “screaming and yelling that Asiah had been shot as she was trying to dial 911,” the station reported.
Investigators said the attack on the home was part of a string of violent acts linked to “simple disputes” between students at Hopewell, North Mecklenburg and Chambers high schools, police said. The violence included several “gunshot attacks on Charlotte homes” and the killing of a teenager, The Charlotte Observer reported.
The three men who have pleaded guilty are among five people linked to the case, including one not yet arrested, according to Mecklenburg County jail records. Updates on those suspects have not been released.
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Boy died as 150 shots hit Charlotte home. A third man has pleaded guilty, DA says."