Macon man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2012 Waffle House killing

Standing at the front of a Bibb County courtroom Thursday, Devontae Quashawn Haywood prepared to plead guilty to killing a man.

A couple dozen people sat in the gallery behind him, more or less evenly divided between Haywood's supporters and those still grieving the death of 20-year-old Christopher Crowder more than three years after he was shot at a Macon Waffle House restaurant.

The judge asked Haywood if he wanted to plead guilty.

Almost immediately a man in the crowd yelled, "no man," proclaiming Haywood's innocence.

After the man was escorted from the courtroom, Haywood pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter as a "best interest" plea.

He expressed sympathy to the Crowder family and asked the judge for leniency.

Haywood was sentenced to 20 years, 15 of them in prison, and as a first offender, meaning if he successfully completes his sentence he won't have a felony criminal record.

Several people spoke on Haywood's behalf during the hearing, held in Bibb County Superior Court.

Among them were his pastor, his Sunday School teacher and family friends.

Some said Haywood admitted being at the Chambers Road Waffle House early on the morning of Dec. 9, 2012, when Crowder was shot, but he wasn't the triggerman.

His mother said "it was a total shock" when her son, who had never been in trouble, was arrested.

She said she figures he was hanging around the wrong crowd, at the wrong place and time.

"I know in my heart that he didn't do this," she said, asking the judge for mercy.

'IT HAS GOT TO STOP'

Stacey Crowder was awakened that December morning by a call from the coroner saying her son, her middle child, had been killed.

"Losing him was like losing a part of me," she said during Thursday's hearing. "I was so lost."

Years later, she said she doesn't have any hate toward the men charged with killing her son. Charges against a second man, 22-year-old Ashley De'Mus Brown, still are pending.

"I know God has the final say," Crowder said.

But she said she has unanswered questions about what happened leading up to her son's death.

"I never got the chance to tell Chris goodbye," she said.

Prosecutor John Regan said large groups of people were gathered at the Waffle House early that morning, and a fight broke out.

Christopher Crowder was fatally shot.

Authorities have said a woman was grazed by a bullet, and another person was shot in the leg.

In sentencing Haywood, Judge Howard Simms told the families gathered that unfortunately he sees a similar gathering of families in his courtroom often -- one side grieving a dead child and another side about to see a loved one sent to prison.

"Until somebody somewhere decides that these children ... that are running around on the street with guns and knives ... are going to be accountable, we're going to keep doing this over and over and over," he said. "We're going to keep burying bodies, and we're going to keep stacking up caskets.

"It has got to stop."

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

CORRECTION:  A previous photo caption accompanying this story incorrectly stated Trunell Roberts’ relationship to the Haywood family. She is a friend of Devontae Haywood’s grandmother.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Macon man pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2012 Waffle House killing ."