Man lured from apartment and killed in 2023, NC officials say. Now one sentenced

A man is going to prison after being convicted in a fatal 2023 stabbing, North Carolina officials said.

In May 2023, Derrick Monte Hairston fatally stabbed Mason Williams in a parking lot outside Williams’ Winston-Salem apartment, according to a May 20 news release by the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office.

Hairston went to Williams’ home and lured him outside before stabbing him in the chest, prosecutors said.

In a video as he was dying, Williams identified Hairston as the attacker, officials said.

After the stabbing, Hairston went to a gas station and bought beer before buying marijuana and then returning back to an area where the stabbing occurred, prosecutors said.

When officers arrested Hairston, he told them he accidentally stabbed Williams, officials said.

Prosecutors did not identify a motive or the relation between the men in the release.

During the trial, Williams’ mother, Mechelle Quincy, described her son as “a beloved son and brother” who was a “committed family man with a tremendous work ethic and a heart for others,” prosecutors said.

After a seven-day trial, Hairston was convicted of second-degree murder and received a sentence of 35 to 42 years in prison, officials said.

Winston-Salem is about an 80-mile drive northeast from Charlotte.

This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Man lured from apartment and killed in 2023, NC officials say. Now one sentenced."