Three men were found guilty in the killing of an Atlantic City man inside a hotel room in 2015.
DeVonte Molley, 23, was mortally wounded when he crawled out Room 859 of the then-Madison Hotel, got on an elevator and collapsed in the lobby.
He told a police officer he didn't know who shot him.
But he did.
Maurice Burgess, who had been staying in Molley's hotel room that weekend, set up his friend for robbery, and it turned deadly, according to the case presented by Assistant Prosecutor Rick McKelvey.
Burgess and Sterling Spence were found guilty Thursday of robbery and felony murder, which is any crime that results in a death.
They face life in prison.
A third man, Charles Wynn, was found not guilty of felony murder, instead convicted of the lesser charge of reckless manslaughter, which carries 10 years in prison. He also was found guilty of attempted theft.
Texts Burgess sent to the men weighed heavily in the case, allowing the state to paint a picture of a plan to rob their friend of heroin and money, as Burgess watched the cash stack up from drug-deals.
But the defense insisted that Burgess and Spence were showing Wynn the drug-dealing ropes when they headed to their friend's room to sell some heroin.
They did plan to look for drugs in the room because someone else — referred to only as "a guy from Trenton" — may have had heroin left around, so they planned to sell it back to him.
All three defendants took the stand, with Wynn the only one who didn't know the victim.
They all testified that Wynn and Spence were let in by Burgess, who left them alone in the room where Molley was asleep.
Spence claimed that, while Wynn was in the back looking for drugs, he had stepped into the bathroom. In that time, Molley woke up and started back toward the bedroom armed with a gun.
He said he tried to talk to his friend, but that "Husk" kept coming toward him, so he knocked the gun from his hand.
Spence claimed Molley was shot as the two struggled with the gun.
That gun was never found.
Spence and Wynn had tried to plead guilty weeks before trial, but Burgess declined a plea offer. The state said either all three plead, or none.
They then went to trial.
Spence and Burgess now face life in prison.
Wynn faces 10 years on the manslaughter charge.
