Thread by @RobertReport

HAPPENING NOW: Craig Hicks, who shot and killed his neighbors, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, on February 10, 2015, is in Durham County Court to plead guilty to the murders. @WNCN
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WATCH LIVE: @WNCN has a video stream of the Craig Hicks murder hearing at the Durham County Courthouse. He will plead guilty to the February 10, 2015 murders of his neighbors, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

cbs17.com/watch-now

Craig Hicks pleads guilty to three counts of murder and one count of discharging a firearm into an occupied building. He killed his three Muslim neighbors in February 2015. Family members have said it was a hate crime due to their faith. @WNCN

Craig Hicks said he wanted to plead guilty from the start, but that he was advised by an attorney not to do so.
Judge Orlando Hudson tells Hicks it is not a lawyer's decision. He reminds Hicks that the plea comes after the state recently opted not to seek the death penalty. @WNCN

Judge Orlando Hudson: "The case here was not about your guilt or innocence but about whether or not you were going to receive the death penalty or not. This has now been resolved."
Former district attorney Roger Echols planned to seek death penalty. New DA Satana Deberry did not.

"It appears you have agreed to plead guilty in part because you have worked out some sort of plea agreement in this case," Judge Hudson said to Craig Hicks, who just pleaded guilty to the 2015 murders of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.

WATCH LIVE: cbs17.com/watch-now

Prosecutors are showing some of Craig Hicks's interview with police in the hours after he murdered his neighbors, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. @WNCN

(1 of 2) Moments before he was murdered, Deah Barakat decided to use his cell phone to record his interaction as he opened his front door to his neighbor, Craig Hicks.
"Deah did not know what he was about to record, but his last act on this earth was definitive proof." @WNCN

(2 of 2) The video shows Craig Hicks yell at Deah Barakat and then shoot him multiple times. As Barakat falls to the ground, the phone continues to record audio of Hicks shoot Barakat's wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, @WNCN

Courtroom recording devices were turned off during the playing of the video. Family and friends of the victims in the gallery are in tears, with many muttering things to themselves. One said "You f***ing scumbag, you piece of s***" at Hicks. Now in recess for a few minutes. @WNCN

WATCH LIVE: Victim impact statements in the sentencing of Craig Hicks.
First to speak is Mohammad Abu-Salha, father of Yusor and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha.
He begins by thanking people of all religions and atheists who supported him during the aftermath.
cbs17.com/watch-now

"You had 12 guns, but Deah killed you with a camera. Your life is finished," Mohammad Abu-Salha said to Craig Hicks. "You asked him to kill you with a camera."

Abu-Salha's son-in-law, Deah Barakat, used a cell phone to unknowingly record his own murder as Hicks shot him. @WNCN

"Let's call this what it is, a hate crime," said Dr. Suzanne Barakat, the sister of murder victim Deah Barakat.

"This is a terrorist attack."

"Deah, Yusor, and Razan died because they were Muslim." @wncn

"Craig Stephen Hicks, I haven't been able to say your name until now. I have questions for you. 36 seconds, that's how long it took for you to shatter or lives forever. Why? How?" Suzanne Barakat said to her brother's killer during her victim impact statement. @WNCN

"They have lived and passed successfully. It is up to us to live and have the same fate," says the brother of murder victim Deah Barakat, one of three Muslims killed. "It is upon us to follow them, and to learn from our teachers. They have taught us that death is imminent." @WNCN

Judge Orlando Hudson sentences Craig Stephen Hicks to three life sentences, to run consecutively, for the murders of Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, plus 64-89 months for shooting into an occupied dwelling. @WNCN

HAPPENING NOW - WATCH LIVE AT CBS17.COM:
cbs17.com/watch-now

Durham County District Attorney Satana @Deberry4DA is holding a press conference following the conviction and sentencing of Craig Hicks.

Family and friends of #OurThreeWinners are present. @WNCN

“There was no plea. There was no agreement for Craig Stephen Hicks. He gets no deals. He is regulated to a foot note in history,” DA Santana Deberry said.

“If we remember anything of this day, let us remember The Lighthouse, Project Smile, and the #ourthreewinners foundation.”

Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry just issued this statement on the conviction and sentencing of Craig Stephen Hicks for the 2015 murders of Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and Deah Barakat--who got married six weeks earlier--and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. @WNCN

Attached is video of some of the comments of Suzanne Barakat, sister of murder victim Deah Barakat. An earlier post mixed up some of her exact phrasing.
"Deah, Yusor, and Razan were murdered in an Islamophobic hate crime. Let's call this what it is: a terrorist attack." @WNCN

Statement from @ChapelHillPD following the conviction and sentencing of Craig David Hicks for the February 2015 murders of Muslim college students Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohmmad Abu-Salha. @WNCN

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