WILMINGTON — A local man will spend nearly a decade in prison after pleading guilty to his role in several gun-related offenses that happened last October.
Jayden Canty, 19, pleaded guilty Monday in New Hanover Superior Court to two counts of discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and two counts of possession of a stolen firearm.
According to a statement by the New Hanover County district attorney’s office, on October 3, 2022, Wilmington police responded to a shots-fired call in the Houston Moore housing complex. Officers located a vehicle occupied by two gang members; neither man was injured though the automobiles had been struck numerous times. More than 40 spent shell casings were found at the scene.
After viewing video surveillance, investigators beagn looking for a white Kia believed to have been used by four suspects. Twenty minutes later, law enforcement located the vehicle with four suspects inside: Canty, Bryan Mercer, 30, Justin Caldwell, 34 and Malik Caldwell, 27.
One gun was located in the vehicle, another weapon located underneath. Ballistics testing later matched the firearms to the shooting.
Prosecutors believed the shooting was in retaliation because it happened on the same day as a funeral for a known gang member associated with Canty and other suspects.
Investigators found a third gun used in the Houston Moore shooting six days later in a wooded area off of Hurst Street after responding to another shots-fired call. Canty later admitted he and his uncle had been the target of a shooting and he fired the gun in self-defense.
He also claimed to have left the weapon in the woods after the altercation.
On October 12, Canty was involved in another shootout with rival gang members and fired shots from a different stolen firearm. No injuries were reported in that incident, and the gun was recovered near Canty on October 28 when police were serving warrants on him for the offenses that occurred earlier in the month.
Canty’s criminal history prior to Monday’s plea consisted of a single conviction for marijuana possession. The cases against Mercer, Caldwell and Simpson are still pending.
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