30 years after the tragic murder of Michael Jordan’s father, a harrowing confession from one of the perpetrators has come to light.
On 23 July, 1993, James Raymond Jordan Sr was shot dead in his car.
Larry Demery, 17 and Daniel Green, 18, from a rural swath of North Carolina, were handed life sentences after being convicted of first-degree murder.
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While Green has maintained his innocence, Demery has always remained quiet on the situation, until now.
The now-46-year-old - who says his parole hearing is in December this year - has given a detailed description of what went down on that fateful day.
"On the night we crossed paths with Michael Jordan’s dad, we had already robbed a convenience store and a couple outside a motel. There are motels right by Highway 95, the interstate that runs through North Carolina," Demery told the What it Was Like podcast.
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"So we were hanging around outside, creeping around, waiting for people to pop out. But not much was happening and we noticed a car sitting not far from the motel, right beside the highway.
"Daniel actually mentioned it first. He said, 'man, you know what? That’s a Lexus.' At the time I didn’t know what a Lexus was because they’d only been out for like a year or two. But we decided to go check it out.
"There in the front seat, we found a guy asleep, laying there with gold rings on his fingers and a gold watch. We actually thought the guy was a dope dealer to be in a ride like that, sitting beside the road asleep.
"So we just walked by a couple of times and checked it out. Then we decided to rob the guy.
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"The plan was to drive him down the road and just put him out, then drive off with his stuff. But it didn’t work out that way."
The prisoner explained: "There was only one pistol. Daniel had it. He tried to hand it to me but I was like 'no man, no'. I’m not trying to make myself sound like an innocent person or anything. I was right there and down with the program, but nobody was supposed to have gotten hurt. The man was laying there asleep.
"So I remember he took it, and then there was a shot. That was it. Just one shot, while the man lay there asleep. When he was hit, he just moved around a little bit, made a noise - like a moaning noise - then sat up real quick. There was a moment and he laid back again, and that was it. Just a few seconds and he stopped moving."
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After the pair went through James' pockets, they discovered his driving license, along with an engraving on the back of his watch, which read 'To dad, from Michael and Juanita'.
"I don’t know why, but I knew that Michael Jordan’s wife’s name was Juanita. And that’s when everything fell into place," he added.
Green and Demery dropped his body off a bridge near Pea Bridge Road.
"I never heard from Michael Jordan or anyone in his family," Demery said.
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"But if he ever reads this, I just want to say I’m sorry. I know there are no words that can make up for his loss.
"At that time, at that age, I thought I knew what I was doing, but really didn’t. What we did was horrible.
"It really was. I hate that I invaded anybody’s life like I did. And all the other people’s lives that I affected too."
Topics: Michael Jordan, Crime
Anish Vij