Four years ago, a Zachary father of four found his oldest daughter’s teenage boyfriend hiding in her closet after the boy climbed through the girl’s second-story bedroom window for a pre-dawn visit. When Dezmon Hamilton, 34, confronted the 17-year-old, it led to an exchange of gunfire between the two, and Hamilton was killed inside his home.
Nicholas McQuirter, the boyfriend, was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder two years later after his case was transferred from juvenile court to the 19th Judicial District Court. On Tuesday, McQuirter pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced to five years of probation.
The plea and sentencing came during an emotional hearing in a courtroom packed with family members of both the victim and McQuirter. At least 10 deputies stood guard inside the courtroom to keep the two sides separated.
Afterward, Hamilton’s family expressed disappointment with an outcome that spared McQuirter of any prison time.
“Through this whole process, we have not received justice,” Danita Cage, the victim’s mother, said outside the courtroom. “We have not only lost a loved one, my grandkids have lost a provider and a father. Someone that was supposed to be there for their graduations, their games, their weddings.”
McQuirter pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and illegal use of weapons on Tuesday. Prosecutors said the combined maximum sentence for the two offenses was seven years.
Neither of the felony charges is considered a crime of violence, according to state law. Following the recommended terms of the plea deal that prosecutors and the defendant's attorney negotiated, District Judge Colette Greggs deferred McQuirter’s prison stint under Article 893 of Louisiana’s criminal code, which allows courts to set aside prison sentences for noncapital felony offenses.
In addition to the five years of probation, Greggs ordered McQuirter to serve 100 hours of community service, get mental health and substance abuse evaluations and undergo any recommended treatments. She also placed McQuirter, now 21, on a nightly curfew and told him he is allowed to go out after 8 p.m. only for work, school, church or to complete his community service hours. He is next expected to be in court Oct. 9 for a probation review.
McQuirter’s trial was set to begin next week. Had a jury convicted him of second-degree murder, he faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. McQuirter’s Baton Rouge attorney, Ryan Beaulieu, maintained that the teen was invited to the home by his then-girlfriend and was defending himself when he shot and killed Hamilton. McQuirter was also shot during the incident.
Beaulieu said McQuirter pleaded guilty in his best interest, unwilling to risk the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
“This is a travesty on both sides of the fence. Anytime there’s a loss of life, no one wins,” the attorney said after Tuesday’s hearing. "However, this was a matter where I believe justice was served because my client was acting in total self-defense.”
Memories of a loving father
Dezmon Jerome Hamilton was a Southern University grad with an entrepreneurial spirit. State records show he started several local businesses in East Baton Rouge Parish. He was also a supervisor at the ExxonMobil lube station in Port Allen.
During Tuesday’s court proceedings, Hamilton’s children remembered him as a doting father and loving family man who was very active in their lives and instilled strong values like faith in God and hard work.
His youngest daughter, Deziré Hamilton, shed tears as she lamented the fact that he won’t be around to help guide her through her adolescent years and beyond.
“My dad was a very good father,” she said. “He wasn’t here when I went to middle school. He wasn't here when I went to high school. I know he would’ve been right there beside me, but now he’s gone and I can never get him back. The memories I have of him are slowly fading away because someone took him away from me.”
Diamon Hamilton, the victim’s oldest daughter, gave the most powerful and emotionally jarring moments. She recalled watching her father take his last breaths as she and her mother attempted to perform CPR to save him after the shooting. She disputed claims that Dezmon initiated the gun battle with acts of aggression toward her then-boyfriend.
“My dad would never even hurt a fly,” she said. “If my dad really had the intentions to hurt the defendant, why didn’t he do it once he first saw him in my closet?”
Facts of the case
Diamon told detectives she texted McQuirter, inviting him over around 6 a.m. on July 18, 2021. When he arrived, he propped a ladder against the house and climbed to the roof, then snuck in through her bedroom window while Dezmon was sleeping in another room, the police report stated.
Once inside, McQuirter took off his red hoodie, wrapped it up and put it in Diamon’s closet. Moments later, an irate Dezmon Hamilton began beating on his daughter’s door. When she opened it, he was standing there in his boxer shorts armed with a gun, the girl told detectives. Dezmon ordered the boy to grab his things and escorted him to the living room area downstairs, according to Diamon’s statements to detectives.
Once downstairs, Dezmon called Diamon’s mother and her maternal grandmother and told them to rush to the house. The two women arrived about 20 minutes later, and tempers flared as they disciplined the girl and confronted McQuirter about sneaking into the house, reports state.
But Diamon’s mother said she pulled her daughter and mother out of the living room to calm things down and told Dezmon to deal with the situation. As Diamon and the two women were walking into an adjacent hallway, they told detectives they heard multiple gunshots ring out. When they rushed back into the living room, they saw Dezmon and McQuirter both on the floor, bleeding. Dezmon was sliding down a couch near the kitchen stool where McQuirter had been seated. The teenage boy was army crawling across the hallway floor, clutching a pistol as he shouted that Dezmon shot him, the report stated.
Police officers recovered a Glock pistol on a couch sitting atop McQuirter’s hooded sweatshirt, detectives said. Another Glock that had been reported stolen was lying near McQuirter’s outstretched hands, according to an arrest affidavit.
Detectives questioned Diamon, her mother and grandmother. Neither of the women said they saw Dezmon holding a pistol when they exited the living room. Diamon said it had been tucked in the shorts he was wearing. According to the report, Diamon said she believed McQuirter secretly stashed a gun in his red hoodie, although she never saw him holding it. She said she believed McQuirter fired at Hamilton first, detectives stated.
Cage, the victim's mother, said the family wanted to take the case to trial. East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore released a statement on Wednesday responding to questions about prosecutors’ decision to offer McQuirter the plea deal:
“While the state could prove that Nicholas McQuirter shot and killed Mr. Hamilton, we could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt who was the aggressor,” he said. “Forensic evidence, including ballistic and trajectory analysis, could not provide the answer as to whether or not McQuirter acted in self-defense. While there were eyewitnesses to what happened at the house prior to the shooting, no one actually saw McQuirter and Mr. Hamilton fire their weapons and McQuirter declined to make a statement to law enforcement officers.
“We met personally with the Hamilton family on multiple occasions and are deeply aware of the pain this family continues to endure,” he continued. "The plea agreement reflects the limits of what could be proven at trial, not the value of Mr. Hamilton’s life. The risk of pursuing a murder conviction and securing no conviction at all would have been a total miscarriage of justice.”
This story was updated to clarify the maximum sentence the defendant faced.