An 18-year-old charged in the shooting death of a Charlotte high school model has reportedly admitted to the crime, closing one chapter of a case that rattled a northwest Charlotte neighborhood in early 2024.
Charlotte Alerts News reported that 18-year-old Damarion Godfrey pleaded guilty to the killing of 17-year-old Melekah Corbette, a teen model who was shot in northwest Charlotte in February 2024. According to the outlet, Godfrey admitted to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to roughly 125 to 162 months in prison.
Police records show officers found Corbette in the 2400 block of Pitts Drive shortly after 1 a.m. on February 1, 2024, and medics pronounced him dead at the scene. Detectives later arrested a juvenile suspect on March 9, 2024, and charged that person with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The department’s March 11, 2024, case update laid out the basic timeline and the charges.
Police And Family Accounts
Corbette was a student at Julius L. Chambers High School, and family members told reporters he had recently signed with a New York modeling agency and was already lining up gigs before he was killed. Relatives described the loss as devastating and said the family is still seeking answers, as reported by WSOC. Local coverage at the time also highlighted community reaction and a GoFundMe set up to help with funeral expenses.
Early reporting after the March 2024 arrest repeated the charges listed by police and noted that the juvenile suspect was placed in the custody of the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice after being interviewed by detectives. Local station WBTV covered the arrest and the three charges that CMPD listed at the time. Those initial stories did not include any information about a later plea or sentencing.
Plea Reported But Not Yet Reflected In Public Records
On February 13, 2026, Charlotte Alerts News published an item saying Godfrey pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy and received a sentence of 125 to 162 months. As of this article’s publication, that plea and sentence do not appear in publicly accessible court dockets or in a follow-up release from CMPD. Public case records for Mecklenburg County are searchable through the county’s eCourts system, and Mecklenburg County’s portal is the public entry point for court filings and docket sheets.
Legal Context
Under North Carolina law, second-degree murder is treated as a serious felony under the state’s structured-sentencing system and can carry lengthy prison terms, depending on the defendant’s prior record. The statute defining murder and the sentencing framework are contained in Chapter 14 of the North Carolina General Statutes. Because CMPD’s initial release says the suspect was a juvenile at the time of the alleged crime, the state’s juvenile transfer rules, which spell out when cases may be sent to superior court for adult prosecution, could also be relevant to how the case was handled.
If court records ultimately confirm the plea reported by Charlotte Alerts News, the filings will indicate whether the case was transferred or prosecuted in superior court and how credit for time already served was applied. This story will be updated if and when court filings or an official statement from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department become available.
