DeVonte Molley would have turned 26 on Wednesday.
Instead, his mother and aunts sat in a courtroom hearing what parts of his alleged killers’ statements to detectives will not be allowed at trial.
Known as Husk, Molley was found shot in the stomach at about 10:45 p.m. Dec. 21, 2015, inside a room at the Baymont Inn & Suites Atlantic City .
Sterling Spence, Maurice Burgess and Charles Wynn are charged with felony murder in the case.
They went there to rob Molley of money and drugs, according to a letter Spence signed that was partially read in court Wednesday.
In the letter, Spence claims he “did not enter the room with a weapon or intend using deadly force.”
He claims Molley was sleeping, woke up and pulled a gun.
The shooting happened because “I was just in fear of getting shot by DeVonte,” Judge Donna Taylor read from Spence’s letter.
Tami Molley had to leave the courtroom after hearing that version of events.
“Just lying,” she said in an angry whisper, then walking out.
Outside the courtroom, the victim’s mother questioned how a group would come to rob her son without being armed.
“Regardless, my boy’s not here anymore,” Khira Molley said of her only son.
He had no children, his aunt Luana Molley pointed out. No part of him left behind.
Then, Luana said, they had to watch Spence and Burgess laugh with each other as they sat at the defense table in court.
The two men had been DeVonte’s friends. They even came to his funeral, Luana said.
“Maybe he has a nervous laugh,” his mother said of Spence.
“It was disrespectful,” Luana said.
Spence, Burgess and Wynn are set to go to trial Jan. 14.
All three gave statements to police. Wynn’s was the longest, with the transcript totaling 130 typed pages. But only 48 of those pages — with some agreed upon redactions — will be admissible.
At Page 48, Wynn invokes his right to remain silent, attorney Mark Roddy said.
The state has agreed to not include the rest.
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