A 45-year-old Charlotte man has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and felony firearm possession in the May 2025 shooting death of 29-year-old JahQuell Villegas at a Shell gas station on West Sugar Creek Road, ending a case that began with a fatal argument over a gun and a frantic overnight manhunt. Terry Johnson was sentenced to between 182 and 231 months in prison, according to the seed facts detailed by court records.
The shooting happened around 5:30 a.m. on May 8, 2025, while Villegas sat in a parked vehicle with his girlfriend in the Shell station's lot, according to WSOC-TV. Investigators determined the confrontation stemmed from a physical altercation over a firearm. Villegas was shot in the face and rushed to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, the region's primary Level I trauma center, where he died from his injuries, the station reported.
As reported by Charlotte Alerts News, Johnson was initially arrested and charged with murder before ultimately entering his guilty plea to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter this year. Court documents cited by CrimeSolversCentral reveal that Johnson fled the scene on an electric bike, later leaving the e-bike and blood-stained clothing at the home of an acquaintance who knew him by the nickname “Poo.” That acquaintance's decision to call 911 proved pivotal in identifying him as a suspect.
Fast Arrest Within 24 Hours
The tip led investigators quickly. A City of Charlotte release states that CMPD's Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, a specialized unit tasked with tracking down violent fugitive suspects, located and arrested Johnson without incident on May 9, 2025 — just a day after the shooting. He was taken to the Law Enforcement Center for questioning before being transferred to Sheriff's custody on murder charges.
Villegas was remembered by family and friends at a memorial service held on May 21, 2025, at King's Funeral Home Chapel on Beatties Ford Road, followed by burial at Oaklawn Cemetery in Charlotte, according to funeral notices published by Articobits.
A Corridor Long Flagged for Crime
The Shell station sits within an area the City of Charlotte has officially designated as one of six “Corridors of Opportunity,” a program targeting long-standing challenges with violent crime, drug trafficking, and prostitution centered around local budget motels and gas stations along West Sugar Creek Road and the I-85 interchange, according to city planning records. A summary from PublicInput details that the initiative has funded the acquisition and demolition of high-crime motels in the area and secured a $12 million federal RAISE grant for corridor mobility safety improvements, addressing a stretch of road where budget motels historically generated hundreds of emergency police calls.
CMPD's North Tryon Division has since ramped up enforcement in the same corridor. Officers conducted “Operation Nite Shade” during June and July 2026, making 68 total arrests, executing 577 traffic stops, and seizing 17 illegal firearms along West Sugar Creek Road and Reagan Drive, according to WCNC. The operation was launched specifically to suppress gun violence and open-air drug activity in the area.
Statutory Penalties for the Firearm Charge
Johnson's guilty plea also covered possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Under North Carolina law, that offense is a Class G felony punishable by up to 47 months in prison, and the state added harsher felony enhancements in 2025 for cases where a firearm is brandished or discharged during a crime, according to an analysis from the UNC School of Government.
The killing is one of several violent incidents Hoodline has tracked along the West Sugar Creek corridor in recent months, including a Charlotte man's guilty plea in a fish table murder and a rush-hour shooting on nearby Reagan Drive. The stretch of I-85 running past West Sugar Creek Road was also identified as North Carolina's single deadliest highway segment between 2019 and 2023, recording 23 fatal crashes, underscoring the area's broader public safety burden tied to heavy interstate traffic.
