****UPDATE: The jury returned a guilty verdict on the first-degree murder charge against Alston on Thursday afternoon.****

An Orange County jury now has the case of 24-year-old Ramone Alston, who is charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of an infant on Christmas Day in Chapel Hill in 2015.

Alston and 25-year-old Pierre Je Bron Moore are charged with shooting into a group who was outside enjoying the unusually warm weather that Christmas evening. One of the bullets hit 14-month-old Maleah Williams, who was in her mother’s arms.

Williams died three days later.

During closing arguments on Wednesday morning, prosecutors said this case represented “absolute indifference colliding with absolute innocence.”

The defense does not dispute that Alston was at the scene but pointed to Moore as being the individual responsible for the infant’s death.

Prosecutors countered that they believed the evidence presented over the course of the trial had shown that two guns were used in the shooting.

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Nieman said during opening statements earlier this month that this case was a “tragic case of a cycle of violence that didn’t end until it took the life of the most innocent person imaginable.”

The jury received the case on Wednesday afternoon.

Alston is charged with first-degree murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. The prosecution is not pursuing the death penalty against Alston, meaning the only sentence available if the jury returns a guilty verdict on the first-degree murder charge is life in prison.

Wake County Judge Rebecca Holt is presiding over the case. The trial against Moore is not expected to begin in the near future.

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