One of two men charged in the 2023 death of a woman who was using her car as a battering ram at an Augusta club pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser offense.
Julius Ceaser Morris, 40, and codefendant Raheem Carter told authorities at the time they shot at Grovetown victim Makala Perkins’ vehicle in self defense.
Prosecutors found otherwise. In reality a very intoxicated Perkins, 23, had become angry when security wouldn’t let her return inside Suz Lounge to look for her phone, prosecutor Keagan Waystack told the court.
Perkins began ramming vehicles in the parking lot of the Deans Bridge Road club and at one point trapped people behind a vehicle, Waystack said. Multiple shots were fired, then Perkins drove away, Waystack said.
The defendants and others could have argued self defense at that point, but what happened next was not, Waystack said. Perkins returned and parked in a nearby lot, then ran unarmed toward the club.
Around that time Carter, armed with Morris’ gun, asked Morris for another clip, then opened fire on Perkins, she said.
Video showed Perkins asking for help for about 20 minutes until she died. She’d been shot six times, including four times in the back, said Waystack, assistant district attorney with the Augusta DA’s violent crime and gang unit.
Morris’ defense attorney, Zachary Goolsby, emphasized that multiple people were firing their weapons during the incident, while Morris didn’t know Carter was going to kill Perkins with the extra clip of bullets.
Prosecutors offered Morris, who was indicted for malice murder and felony murder, a reduced sentence if he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, which he did Wednesday in Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright’s court.
Facing up to 20 years in prison, his sentence was capped at five years in prison, and he receives credit for the nearly two years he’s been at Webster Detention Center, Waystack said. Wright sentenced him to five years.
Family members think the negotiated sentence was too light, while Perkins’ phone turned up in her own vehicle, under a seat, she said.
Morris had a limited criminal history that had a charge of carrying a weapon at Augusta University. He had a gun permit and a was working at Plant Vogtle prior to the incident, according to Goolsby.
Suz Lounge hasn’t made the news since the incident, but it helped prompt the Augusta Commission to place the club on six months’ probation. Authorities at the time said in addition to the homicide, owner Samantha Moses had an un-permitted boxing ring and gambling inside.
