Three plead guilty after man found shot execution style in burned-out car in Durham
Three people, including two brothers, pleaded guilty Monday to the execution-style killing of a California man whose body was found in a burned-out car in Durham four years ago.
Kenyawna Powell, Joshua McClain and Reginald McClain pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Ly Teng Nhiayi, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein announced in a news release.
On July 26, 2018, Nhiayi was found in car that had been set on fire on the dead-end Guardian Road. The wooded area is off South Miami Boulevard near Research Triangle Park.
Nhiayi’s body was unrecognizable.
An autopsy found he had been shot twice in the back of the head before being placed in the car, The Herald-Sun reported.
The car had also been reported stolen earlier that day.
Nhiayi’s family filed a missing person’s report, saying he had traveled to Durham to collect $50,000 for marijuana sales, according to search warrants obtained by the Durham Police Department.
In addition to Powell and the McClain brothers, two other men, Derrick Tyson, of Bear Creek, and Walter Thorne-Price, of Durham, were arrested and charged in the death.
Powell will serve 10 to 13 years in prison and Joshua McClain will serve 12 to 15 years, according to the news release.
Reginald McClain is currently incarcerated and will be sentenced after the sentencing in his related federal case, the release stated.
Circumstances of the murder
Nhiayi was the connection between California marijuana growers and Tyson, according to the warrants.
The documents also revealed that Nhiayi was picking up the money from Tyson when he flew into Raleigh-Durham International Airport that July. The two had worked together prior to the visit.
Nhiayi’s family believed Tyson killed him because of a May 2018 feud in which Tyson purchased about 1,600 pounds of marijuana from Nhiayi.
The amount was divided into two loads and Tyson was responsible for taking one to North Carolina and Nhiayi the other, The Herald-Sun reported. Nhiayi’s load didn’t make it to the state, according to the warrants, and he told Tyson that law enforcement had seized it in Texas.
Tyson believed he was betrayed by Nhiayi, according to Nhiayi’s mother in the search warrants.
‘Dangerous people’
Tyson, Reginald McClain and Thorne-Price were arrested on Sept. 27, 2018, two months after the victim’s body was found, and charged with murder.
Tyson was found not guilty earlier this year and Thorne-Price is serving a federal sentence related to this case and has been sentenced in his state case, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
Reginald McClain and Thorne-Price were known drug dealers and members of the 9 Trey Gangsters set of the United Blood Nation in the Brentwood and Rochelle neighborhoods in Durham, according to the warrants.
Joshua McClain was on the run for months after the murder and a manhunt led to his arrested in Cary in January 2019 by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force.
Powell was the last person to be arrested in September 2019 by Durham gang investigators on Cheek Road. He was arrested on outstanding charges of assault on a female, felony fleeing to elude arrest in a motor vehicle and hit-and-run. He also was cited for misdemeanor possession of Oxycodone, The News & Observer reported.
“Three very dangerous people are off our streets and our community is safer,” Stein said in the release. “My office will do everything we can to hold accountable violent criminals and get justice for victims and survivors. Our hearts continue to go out to the family of Ly Teng Nhiayi.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 1:47 PM.