NC Former Security Guard Pleads Guilty to Killing Co-Worker
Charlotte NC September 5, 2023 A former security guard at a Charlotte arcade will spend four to six years behind bars after pleading guilty to killing his coworker.
Darrell McKinley, 54, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on Aug. 31.
McKinley shot and killed 50-year-old Malik Whitney, a fellow Galaxy One Arcade security guard, in January 2022. The two had been arguing over a gun sale that fell through, lawyers said in court.
Galaxy One, seemingly shut down, still had a sign in its window the day of the court hearing advertising an adult arcade.
Whitney’s family was displeased with the plea deal, Assistant District Attorney Heidi Perlman told Judge Sally Kirby-Turner.
“I have never been the same because of what (McKinley) did,” Whitney’s wife, LaDonna Henderson, told the court. “All he had to do was call the police. He didn’t have to pull out his gun and shoot my husband like he was nothing.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police first charged McKinley with voluntary manslaughter, then, with additional evidence, upped the charge to murder, according to a news release.
But in court the narrative grew complicated.
Defense attorney Mike Kabakoff said that Whitney was intoxicated and banging on the door to the arcade, and that he was the first person to assault someone.
“We’re not trying to blame him,” the defense attorney said, but McKinley acted in “imperfect self-defense.”
McKinley had worked as a security guard for decades, and has an “extremely low-key, almost serene personality,” Kabakoff said. He shot once, called 911 and complied with police, his attorney added.
Though the case’s prosecutor did not agree with every detail from Kabakoff’s account, there was enough agreement for a plea deal.
Henderson learned of the deal in a meeting with the district attorney’s office, she told The Charlotte Observer.
“How is that self-defense when my husband didn’t have a weapon?” she asked.
State statute says that someone can use deadly force when “such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.”
When the judge, Kirby-Turner, asked McKinley if he’d like to say anything on Thursday, he at first responded, “Nah.”
He paused for a moment, briefly apologized and said that he was not the first person to attack.
Judge Kirby-Turner gave him an active sentence of 51 to 74 months in prison, noting that his penalty doesn’t compare to what Malik Whitney’s family must endure.
“Mr. Whitney’s family is going to serve a sentence for the rest of their lives,” she told him.
