Suspect indicted on murder charge in 2020 killing of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant in Wilson
A Wilson County grand jury indicted Darius Sessoms on a charge of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Cannon Hinnant, a 5-year-old killed last year while sitting on his bike in his front yard.
Sessoms, 26, was arrested on Aug. 9, 2020, by the Wilson Police Department in the shooting of Hinnant, who died from gunshot wounds at his home.
Sessoms was indicted Dec. 22 and has his next court date the week of Jan. 24, the Wilson County District Attorney’s office confirmed. An indictment is a charge, not a conviction, and now Sessoms faces a potential trial.
The shooting shook the local community and also sparked national outrage over what many saw as a senseless killing of a beloved child who had yet to begin kindergarten. Authorities have not revealed publicly a potential motive.
Sessoms was a next-door neighbor of Hinnant’s father. He was known to police for previous felony charges and served two short prison terms in 2017, for drug possession and for felony firearms and drug charges, The News & Observer reported previously.
Three times, his record shows, police charged him with maintaining a house for drug activity while living on Archers Road. He was convicted in one case; another was dismissed and a third charge was still pending.
Carolyn Sessoms, the suspect’s mother, told an N&O reporter last year outside her home that Sessoms shot Hinnant while mentally unstable under the influence of drugs.
His mother found him mentally unstable with a gun after she came home from church on the Sunday of the shooting.
“We think he had gotten hold of something,” Carolyn Sessoms said. “He was hallucinating. We tried to get the gun out of his hand, but he was so strong. He was so strong.”
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