Man convicted of voluntary manslaughter has probation case remanded to lower court

Feb. 22—A 31-year-old Sanford man who made an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter in the 2016 shooting death of another man outside a Sanford lounge had his probation violation appeal remanded to a lower court on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

Joshua T. Brewington was given a five-year suspended sentence with credit for 22 months in jail after he claimed self defense in the shooting of Winford J. Murchison, 31. At the time of the offense, Brewington was 22. According to CBS 17.com, the two had been feuding for more than a year, citing a statement from the district attorney.

When Brewington made the Alford plea in regard to the shooting on July 27, 2018, in which he didn’t admit guilt but acknowledged the prosecution had enough evidence for a conviction, he also pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute stemming from 2014.

A state probation officer filed a probation violation against Brewington on Oct. 28, 2019 for possession of a firearm by a felon, but a hearing on that was not held until after Brewington’s probation expired on Aug. 3, 2023.

The hearing was not held because Brewington was serving a 54-month federal prison sentence and then was in a federal halfway house, according to the appeals court decision. Brewington pleaded guilty to a federal count of being a felon in possession of a firearm stemming from Nov. 29, 2018.

The appeals court ruled 3-0 that the Alamance County Superior Court failed to make statutorily required factual findings to revoke Brewington’s probation after the expiration of his probationary period.

According to the court decision, Brewington said, “It would be a mockery of the entire justice system” to hold him accountable for a probation violation after his probation had expired.

The case was remanded to Alamance County Superior Court Judge David T. Lambeth Jr.