New Bern man pleads guilty to second-degree murder

A New Bern man apologized to his victim's family before being sentenced to 17 to 22 years in prison Tuesday in an Onslow County courtroom for the shooting death of a Maysville man after a 2006 basketball game in Trenton.

"I apologize and if you can't accept it, I pray for you," James Ricardo Cuthbertson, 22, told the family of 23-year-old Shamel Rashad Baker in court.

Cuthbertson, who dropped out of West Craven High School in the 11th grade, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Baker, a Jones Senior High School graduate.

Cuthbertson shot Baker in the chest with a 9 mm pistol in the crowded parking lot of Jones Senior High School at around 10:20 p.m. Dec. 1, 2006, after a game between West Craven and Jones Senior.

Prosecutors said a "gang dispute" during the game preceded the shooting.

Cuthberson's lawyer, Jacksonville attorney Wally Paramore, said Cuthbertson acted in self-defense because Baker was running toward him, Cuthbertson thought he saw a weapon in Baker's hand and Cuthbertson even fired a warning shot.

"It is not unusual for a weapon to disappear from a crime scene, especially with that many people there," Paramore told the court in response to Onslow County Senior Superior Court Judge Charles Henry's question whether a firearm other than the one used by Cuthbertson was recovered at the scene.

Assistant District Attorney Jamie Askins said Baker was holding a camera, which Baker brought to photograph his niece who was cheerleading at the game.

"The defendant made some self-serving statements to investigators, but the truth is Mr. Baker was shot in the back," Askins told the court.

Deborah Baker said she spoke to her son by phone Dec. 1, 2006, and he said he was at the basketball game. Then 20 minutes later she received a call that her son had been shot dead.

"He was my baby," she said. "Now we are helping raise his children because he is gone."

Baker left behind three children, including a daughter his wife found out she was pregnant with the day Baker died but did not get a chance to tell him about.

"My son died without even knowing about his third child," Deborah Baker said. "And his daughter will never know him."

Henry ordered Cuthbertson to undergo a mental health evaluation during his sentence and to pay $11,528.19 in restitution to cover the cost of Baker's funeral.

Cuthbertson also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm on educational property and two counts of armed robbery in separate cases. In the robbery cases, Cuthbertson pleaded guilty to robbing a pizza delivery man and a taxi driver on back-to-back days in New Bern during October 2006. He was out on bond the night he shot Baker.

Contact crime reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read Lindell's blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.