Two Harrisburg men have pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after one of them shot a Houston truck driver in the head after the victim’s friend pulled a gun on them last year.
Tyree Smith and Charles Anderson, both 30, followed, shot and killed Christopher Hill, 26, after an argument in a parking lot outside of a club the night of March 6, 2021.
Hill was driving the car for his friend, Khalid Jones, 26, of Atlanta, because Jones had too much to drink, when the car stopped some blocks away from the club on Division Street. Jones pulled a gun on Anderson and Smith, who were in the car close behind them, almost “right on their bumper,” an eyewitness told Stephen Zawisky, Dauphin County’s chief deputy district attorney,
But both Smith and Anderson fired, and one bullet struck Hill in the back of his head before Hill’s foot hit the gas. Hill’s red Nissan Altima traveled 200 feet before crashing into a tree on Division Street, Zawisky said.
Hill was transported to the hospital, where he died six days later.
Voluntary manslaughter is the appropriate charge when someone believes deadly force is necessary to protect themselves, and is in fear of serious bodily injury to themselves, but it is unreasonable to use deadly force, according to Zawisky.
Anderson also pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed firearm without a license. Smith pleaded to the same charge, but prosecutors dropped a conspiracy of homicide charge and one for possessing a gun while prohibited. Smith was allowed to have a gun.
Hill drove trucks for a living, had no criminal history and was in Harrisburg for his job. He and his best friend had both taken a contract assignment through the summer in Harrisburg and both were staying at a hotel in Susquehanna Township. They decided to go out after work March 6 to have some fun but the night ended in bloodshed.
“It’s tragic,” Zawisky said after the homicide. “A hard-working guy goes out with a friend to have a few drinks and gets gunned down over some stupid argument in a parking lot.”
CJ, as he was known to his family, had been driving one of his father’s trucks, but saw the half-year assignment in Harrisburg as a way to afford his own. Eventually, he wanted to own his own trucking company, like his dad.
Instead, his body was flown to his family’s home in a casket.
“He didn’t deserve this at all,” Daiquiri Hill, Christopher’s father, said. “That’s my son and my best friend at the same time. That’s what I lost.”
Both defendants entered open pleas, which means there was no promise of a specific recommended sentence by prosecutors. Judge William Tully will decide the sentence at a hearing on Feb. 2.
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