An Enfield man Wednesday received a fresh start after a Halifax County jury acquitted him of murder two years to the date he was charged.
In an eight-day trial that started August 5, Roanoke Rapids attorney Sammy D. Webb said the jury found his client — Undray L. Batts Jr. — not guilty of killing Orrick Parker at Meyers Park off Bell Street on August 14, 2022.
“We filed a notice of self-defense,” Webb said this morning. “My guy was there playing basketball. He had played three games — he won two, lost one.”
After the last game he was walking off the court with his cellphone in his hand to call his employer — the Cheesecake Factory in Rocky Mount — that he was going to be late.
As he looked up, he saw Parker speeding into the park. “As my guy was walking to his car, Parker stopped the car and pointed a rifle at him. According to my guy, Parker had been intimidating him for the past two years.”
Asked what prompted the intimidation, Webb said, “I can only say ‘assumption.’ We assume that Parker was in a gang. According to my guy, Parker had another guy beat him up, took his gun one time, pointed the gun in his face. He pointed a gun in his face on another occasion and flashed the gun at him on occasion.”
Batts had been on a college track. He graduated from Southeast High School, played sports, especially football, Webb said. He went to Louisburg College and played football there, transferred to Winston-Salem State, played football there, but dropped out his last year.
Batts had his own gun legally and had a concealed permit, his attorney said. He also had an AR-15. “You can’t conceal that. My guy said (Parker) pointed a rifle at him one time and made a statement of ‘I’ll put you in a box.’”
Parker, Webb said, parked his car in front of his client’s car as Batts was walking to his vehicle. “While Mr. Parker was in his car, my guy contends he pointed the gun at him again and said some threatening words. He saw Mr. Parker place the rifle down, picked up a handgun and put the handgun in a bag, like a book bag.”
When Parker got out of his car, Batts believed the handgun was inside the bag and Parker threatened him.
That’s when Batts got to his car, reached in and got his AR-15 out of the front floorboard “and popped it,” Webb said. “He fired eight shots. Four shots hit (Parker) and he got grazed by two.”
What happened next was not in the initial press release the Enfield Police Department sent the day after the shooting.
“The good thing was, after he shot him, he left because he was afraid the people at the park, some of Mr. Parker’s guys may get him,” Webb said. “He left, went to Rocky Mount and called 911, turned himself in, gave a statement about what happened and turned over the murder weapon.”
Before he surrendered he had called his best friend who waited with him before police took him into custody. “He called 911 himself and went to Rocky Mount because he felt he was safer there. He told Rocky Mount police where they were.”
Enfield police were notified, Webb said, and his client also gave them a statement.
Other minor charges against Batts have been dismissed, his attorney said. “The main argument was self-defense. Parker had provoked it and he thought Parker was pointing a weapon at him. He thought he was going to get killed.”
Asked what his client’s game plan was after the verdict, Webb said it was “to leave the state of North Carolina. He’s got a fresh start. I would like for him to complete his education.”
