A Dover man arrested in Oklahoma with a Morristown murder suspect in August has rejected a plea offer that could have sent him to prison for three years.
DeQuan McDaniel’s case was forwarded to a grand jury on Monday by Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor.
McDaniel was arrested with Tyrell Lansing, both 27, in Tulsa about 30 hours after authorities say Lansing fatally shot 35-year-old Raijah Scott on Clyde Potts Drive in Morristown.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol stopped them in McDaniel’s Hyundai Elantra. The men were tracked via mobile phone information. McDaniel was held in the Tulsa County Jail for weeks.
At Monday’s virtual hearing, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Tara Wang said McDaniel rejected an offer in which the prosecutor would have recommended a pair of concurrent three-year prison terms in exchange to a guilty plea to two counts of third-degree hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a suspect.
A counter-offer was rejected by the prosecutor’s office, Defense attorney William Johnson told the judge.
Authorities say Lansing shot Scott multiple times early on Aug. 18, 2021.
Lansing is charged with first-degree murder, three second-degree weapons charges, a fourth-degree charge of possessing hollow-nosed bullets, and a fourth-degree charge of unlawfully taking a car.
Although he has family in Morristown, Lansing has lived with his mother in North Carolina since sometime after his October 2020 release from New Jersey state prison, where he served time for a weapons conviction, according to Wang.
