CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A September 2020 murder of 23-year-old Cleveland Heights man that stemmed from a yearslong beef over a basketball game has now landed two men in prison.
Deandre Price, 27, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance at parole until he serves 28 years. A jury convicted him earlier this year of aggravated murder and other charges in the death of Malik Moore.
Quincy Hubbard, also 27, was acquitted of aggravated murder and murder charges, but the same jury found him guilty of felonious assault. He received the maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Gaul called Moore’s killing “senseless” and excoriated Hubbard when he turned to Moore’s family in the courtroom and said he had nothing to do with the man’s death.
“I’m going to offer you some advice: Don’t do what you just did,” Gaul told Hubbard. “For you to say you were not involved in this is ridiculous.”
Price did not speak during the hearing. Both men plan to appeal, their attorneys said.
Moore’s mother, Cheri, sobbed as she read from a statement calling Price and Hubbard cowards.
“This type of evil should not be released back on the streets so they can kill someone else’s son or child or brother,” she said. “Malik deserves justice.”
The killing came Sept. 12, 2020, as Moore walked home from getting something to eat at the CVS at South Taylor Road. But testimony at the men’s May trial showed the dispute behind the slaying happened in 2018 on a basketball court in Beachwood.
A fight broke out after a pickup game between Price, Hubbard, Moore and Moore’s uncle, according to a witness. Price punched Moore’s uncle and knocked out a tooth, the man said.
The blood remained bad for two years. In August 2020, a month before the killing, Moore and Hubbard ran into each other at Twisted Minds Smoke Shop at Cedar and Lee roads, and another fight ensued.
A month later, Price was driving a Dodge Charger along South Taylor Road and spotted Moore walking out of the CVS and into the head shop. Price called Hubbard several times, but Hubbard didn’t pick up. The two eventually connected and Price drove to Hubbard’s house.
A witness said that Hubbard took over the steering wheel and drove Price back to find Moore. The two tooled around until they spotted Moore walking on Oakdale Road and followed behind him as he walked through the neighborhood. The car pulled up in front of Moore, and Price got out of the passenger seat and opened fire on Moore, Assistant Cuyahoa County Prosecutor Jeff Schnatter said.
Moore took off running, and Price kept shooting as he gave chase. Moore eventually fell to the ground, and Price stood over him and emptied the clip of his gun, Schnatter said.
The witness said Hubbard seemed “freaked out” after the shooting and ran the car over the curb, forcing Price to drive the car home.
Gaul read from the testimony of a witness who recalled a meeting after the incident where Price said he walked up to Moore’s body after the shooting and kicked him in the head to make sure he was dead. Price had to step in a pool of Moore’s blood to do so, the witness said.
Investigators later found Moore’s DNA on the floor boards of the Dodge Charger, Gaul said.
Hubbard’s attorney, Deanna Robertson, asked Gaul to sentence him to probation. She said that she believed the jury found him guilty of felonious assault on the mistaken belief that he was charged in relation to the August 2020 fight outside the smoke shop. She said that there was no evidence that Hubbard ever had a gun or knew that Price was going to shoot Moore.
Robertson also told Gaul that Hubbard had no criminal history, but Gaul interrupted her to read a list of misdemeanor convictions that included a juvenile assault conviction from 2013.
Hubbard told Moore’s family that if there was anything he could do to bring the victim back he would do it. He then said he didn’t have anything to do with the killing, prompting a man to reply, “karma.” A woman responded, “you could have stopped it.”
Gaul told Hubbard that he was “the luckiest man on the planet” and said, had the jury “understood” the laws around complicity and conspiracy, Gaul believed Hubbard would have been convicted of aggravated murder.
“For you to tell this family you didn’t have anything to do with it is like a child putting hands to their face and pretending they can’t be seen,” Gaul said.
Moore’s great aunt, Bernice Cole, said that she helped raise all of her nieces and nephews as if they were own children. She said Moore came from a big, loving family that threw frequent get-togethers.
She said Moore graduated from Cleveland Heights-University Heights High School in 2016 and was scheduled to enter a job training program in December 2020. She said he would always help her around her house.
She said Moore’s death was the first time gun violence touched her family.
“Trust me, we’ve lived in some very terrible neighborhoods,” she said. “And we never had anything like this happen.”
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