A 34-year-old Duplin County man pleaded guilty Monday in the stabbing death of another man at the Warsaw Inn in June 2008. He was sentenced to serve at least eight and a half years in prison.

Andrew Williams, 34, pleaded guilty in Duplin County Superior Court to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Shane Ray, 34, who was found in the parking lot of Warsaw Inn on June 20, with a fatal stab wound to his chest and slash wounds to his chin.

The Warsaw Police Department and State Bureau of Investigation responded to the fatal stabbing, with the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office also offering assistance.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, a female witness, Jennifer Marie Hill, told authorities Ray had been to the motel room where she and Williams were staying on June 20. On one occasion, the victim requested a crack pipe, which he bought from them, according to state’s evidence.

Ray kept returning to the room and, when he went to the motel room the third time, Williams told him not to come back, according to prosecutors. At that point, an argument ensued between the two men. Ray attempted to force himself inside the room, pushing and swinging at the defendant, according to witnesses.

During a scuffle between the two, Williams grabbed a pocket knife with a 3-inch blade from the top of a nearby dresser. The knife, prosecutors said, was previously used to cut brass wool so it could be placed inside small tubes to smoke crack cocaine. Williams told authorities he swung the knife at the victim and started stabbing at him in an attempt to defend himself and get away.

The fight spilled out of the room and into the motel parking lot, where the defendant dropped the knife and fled. According to the District Attorney’s Office, Williams discovered Ray was dead later that day after his mother told him.

An autopsy revealed there was cocaine present in the victim’s system. His blood ethanol was 150 mg/dL, similar to a blood alcohol content of 0.15, state prosecutors said.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson said he felt the plea was appropriate. In North Carolina, voluntary manslaughter is “the unlawful killing of another human being without malice,” the district attorney explained in a prepared statement.

“Even if a defendant is exercising self-defense but uses excessive force in his defense, that is construed as voluntary manslaughter,” Hudson stated.

Williams was sentenced to a minimum of 103 months and a maximum of 133 months in the N.C. Department of Corrections as a result of pleas to both voluntary manslaughter and malicious conduct by a prisoner, for spitting on a jailer at the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office in November 2008.

Chris Berendt can be reached at (910)-592-8137, ext. 121, or by email at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.