Macon – Bibb County jurors found a Macon man guilty of murder Friday in the 2016 fatal shooting of Darin Vashawn Brewster outside Club Dreams in downtown Macon.
Quentin Mccorey Jackson, 34, was found guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of violating the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act and one count each of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
A judge sentenced Jackson to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 45 years.
Prosecutors Sandra Matson and Jason Knowles presented evidence during the five-day trial showing:
Brewster, 36, spent time with three women at the Back Porch Lounge on Riverside Drive late on the night of Aug. 19, 2016, and into the early hours of the next morning. When the club closed, the group loaded into Brewster’s car and rode to Club Dreams on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Brewster and the women were inside the club for 10 to 15 minutes before the club closed and the group moved back outside.
Soon after Brewster sat down in the driver’s seat of his car, a man approached him and asked for a cigarette lighter. Brewster refused and a gunshot was fired that would later end Brewster’s life.
Brewster drove off, but suffering from his wound, his front seat passenger, 46-year-old Sandra Thomas, was forced to take over and drive the car to a local hospital where Brewster later died.
The three women Brewster had gone to the clubs with, including Thomas, testified during the trial. One said Jackson had threatened her to stay quiet soon after the killing.
A man testified Jackson and 28-year-old Benjamin Jerome Murphy Jr. had told him earlier on Aug. 19 that they were looking to rob someone. Brewster was known to dress nicely and carry cash. A case against Murphy, who also is charged in Brewster’s killing, still is pending in Bibb County Superior Court.
The man also testified that Jackson threatened him at gunpoint not to talk and that he later was beaten by a group of inmates, including Jackson, while both were being held at the Bibb County jail.
A fourth woman testified that Jackson struck her in the face with a metal object and busted her lip while threatening her not to talk about what she might have heard about the killing.
Jurors heard recorded phone calls in which Jackson — talking on a contraband cell phone at the jail — and others threatened Murphy not to testify.
They also heard testimony about how members of the U.S. Marshals Southeast Fugitive Task Force arrested Jackson and Thomas about a month after the killing in South Carolina after they’d fled from Macon. A case still is pending in Bibb County Superior Court against Thomas, who is charged with hindering the apprehension or punishment of a criminal and influencing a witness.
A Bibb County Sheriff’s Office gang investigator testified Brewster was a member of the Crips street gang, a rival to the Gangster Disciples gang to which Jackson was affiliated.
Speaking after the trial, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke said, “Anyone who doubts our resolve to hold gang members accountable for their crimes should ask Mr. Jackson about that. We will not tolerate their senseless killings or their attempts to intimidate witnesses after their arrest. Justice is coming for all of them.”
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Contact: Amy Leigh Womack
478-621-6179 (office)
478-319-2529 (cell)