A Jefferson County jury convicted a 34-year-old man of murder Monday in the 2022 shooting death of a Homewood man outside a Bessemer restaurant, capping a case that stemmed from a dispute over a stolen Cadillac Escalade. Larry James Knight Jr. faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison at sentencing.
The Bessemer Cutoff jury found Knight guilty on Monday, AL.com reported. The trial before Judge David Carpenter had begun October 5, and the verdict closed out a case that had stretched more than four years from the day of the shooting to conviction.
A Stolen Escalade Sparked the Deadly Dispute
The killing happened on the afternoon of March 27, 2022, outside Plush Bar & Grill in the 4000 block of Ninth Avenue in Bessemer, during the restaurant's regular “Baddies Do, Do Brunch” event that drew crowds there every Sunday starting at noon, per the same AL.com account. Justin DeNorman Groom, 32, was pronounced dead in the parking lot at 2:36 p.m., just 16 minutes after the shooting began.
Trial testimony indicated the dispute stemmed from Knight selling Groom a stolen vehicle — a brand-new Cadillac Escalade that Groom had paid $15,000 for, according to AL.com's reporting. Groom wanted his money back once he discovered the SUV was stolen, and the two men argued verbally in the Plush parking lot before shots were fired.
Knight stayed at the scene until officers arrived and was taken into custody, the outlet's report states. Groom never made it out of the Plush parking lot alive.
Knight's Arrest and Bond
Knight was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on a $250,000 bond following his March 2022 arrest.
A booking entry dated October 14, 2023, lists Knight as pretrial.
Inside the Bessemer Cutoff Court System
The Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney's Office serves the Jefferson County jurisdictional area known as the Bessemer Cutoff, according to the Jefferson County Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney's Office.
Alabama classifies murder as a Class A felony under Code § 13A-6-2, according to Joe Ingram Law. Alabama's Stand Your Ground law may also be raised as a self-defense argument.
Alabama's Mandatory Minimum for Firearm-Related Class A Felonies
Alabama law sets a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison for a Class A felony involving a firearm, with a potential maximum of up to 99 years or life, according to FindLaw.
The case also lands against a backdrop of broader shifts in how Alabama handles violent-felony defendants awaiting trial. Voters approved Aniah's Law in November 2022, a state constitutional amendment expanding judicial authority to hold defendants without bail when charged with violent Class A felonies such as murder, a change created after public concern grew over defendants committing new violent crimes while free on bond — a dynamic that echoes Knight's own post-arrest history of new weapons charges in two states.
Jefferson County recorded 215 homicides across its municipalities in 2022, the year Groom was killed, marking one of the highest homicide totals on record for the county, according to Bhamwiki. Firearm-related violence accounted for roughly 96% of all homicides countywide in 2023, per Jefferson County Coroner's Office statistics reported by Hoodline, underscoring how guns continue to dominate fatal confrontations across Birmingham, Bessemer, and the surrounding suburbs.
