Police charged a man with murder nearly a month after he allegedly drove a car onto Interstate 85 in Charlotte with another man clinging to the car's door. Willie Nathaniel Corry Jr. was killed Oct. 4 after he fell from the car onto the highway.
On Tuesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police announced they'd charged 30-year-old Jeremy Levonne Davis with murder and felony hit-and-run in the case.
Davis allegedly drove away after Corry, who was 48, fell and suffered fatal injuries. Corry was dead by the time state troopers arrived at the scene about 1:45 a.m. Oct. 4. They soon found the car, a 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis, abandoned at the bottom of an embankment between I-85 and Reagan Drive.
The incident began at a 7-Eleven store in the 1100 block of West Sugar Creek Road in northeast Charlotte. Police said at the time that Corry got out of the car at the store and went inside. That's when the car started backing out of a parking space, prompting Corry to run outside and grab the passenger door, CMPD said.
Davis allegedly kept driving with Corry hanging onto the car, entering northbound I-85.
Police brought in a K-9 but couldn't find Davis that morning. He was already in the Mecklenburg County jail, accused in an unrelated case, when he was charged with murder.
Police haven't said how they identified Davis as the man driving the car. They also haven't said if the two men knew each other or if Davis was already in the car before Corry went into the store.
There have been 94 homicides reported by CMPD this year – more than any other year since 1993.
CMPD released its third-quarter crime statistics earlier this month, and they showed violent crime was up 11% from the same period in 2018.
CMPD is asking anyone with information on the case to call 704-432-8477.
