Third man guilty in murder and kidnapping case of 9-year-old Kingston Frazier Former Ridgeland High School quarterback is the last of three suspects in the kidnapping and murder case.

Jimmie E. Gates | Mississippi Clarion Ledger

The last words 6-year-old Kingston Frazier told his killer on May 18, 2017, was his age, a prosecutor said.

Dwan Wakefield didn't kill Kingston, but he was on the phone with the killer, Byron McBride, when McBride told him a child was in the vehicle he had stolen from a parking lot of Kroger's food store on I-55 North Frontage Road in Jackson.

Wakefield, then 17 and a quarterback for Ridgeland High School, was the only one of the three defendants who didn't plead guilty. This week, he was on trial in Madison County Circuit Court charged with accessory after the fact counts to murder, kidnapping and motor vehicle theft.

A jury of six men and six women found Wakefield guilty of all three Thursday afternoon after deliberating about three-hours and 40 minutes.

Madison County District Attorney John Bramlett said he will seek the maximum sentence for Wakefield, which is 45 years in prison. Circuit Judge Steve Ratcliff set sentencing for Dec. 16.

Story continues below video.

Kingston Frazier's relatives Kingston Frazier's cousin, Kristy Archie Gentry, and his grandmother Ruby Archie, outside the Madison County Courthouse.

Tears, overwhelming emotions filled courtroom

As the verdicts were read, Wakefield began crying while Kingston's mother, Ebony Archie, wiped away tears.

Archie was too emotional to comment, a family member said outside the Madison County Courthouse.

But Krsty Archie Gentry urged everyone to always remember Kingston and his name.

"He will never be forgotten," Gentry said.

What happened to Kingston Frazier that night?

Wakefield said he told McBride, then 19, to drop the child off at a convenience store or some other public location, but that didn't happen. Instead of dropping the child off, McBride shot him four times.

Kingston's lifeless body was found in the back seat of the car on a dusty dirt road in Gluckstadt in Madison County.

McBride pleaded guilty in August to capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Another defendant, D'Allen Washington, pleaded guilty in 2018 to accessory after the fact to kidnapping and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Why was Wakefield charged in the killing?

Wakefield didn't kill Kingston, but he had knowledge of who kidnapped and killed the child, Madison County Assistant District Attorney Randy Harris said.

Harris said Wakefield picked up McBride from Gluckstadt after McBride ditched the stolen vehicle. The vehicle had run out of gas, and Wakefield drove McBride to an apartment complex on County Line Road in Jackson.

Harris said Wakefield knew at that time that McBride had shot the child.

Harris said much of the evidence against Wakefield was directly from his own mouth.

"He took him (McBride) home although he knew he had killed a child," Harris said.

Wakefield denied knowing Kingston Frazier was in the car

Wakefield had no idea a child was in the car when it was stolen, defense attorney Tom Fortner said.

Fortner told the jury that "this is a tragic case. It makes me and everyone in this courtroom feel badly."

But Fortner said his client had no idea a child was in the vehicle when McBride stole it.

Fortner said after the verdict, "I'm disappointed. It was a hard case. You can never predict what a jury will do."

Kingston was in his mother's vehicle when it was stolen from the parking lot of the Kroger early in the morning on May 18, 2017. It was in that same parking lot, authorities had said, that Wakefield, Washington and McBride had gone to sell a $10 bag of marijuana to a male at the nearby Wendy's restaurant parking lot.

Fortner said as soon as police questioned Wakefield, he waived his rights and voluntarily gave police a statement, including the name of McBride as Kingston's killer.

"He had no intent to keep Byron McBride from being arrested," Fortner told the jury.

Video shows car being stolen, mother discovering her child is gone

Archie, Kingston's mother, was the first witness in the case.

She recounted how she had picked up her son from a sitter and decided to stop by Kroger that night to grab food to cook. She said Kingston was asleep on the back seat. She said a law enforcement officer's vehicle was parked outside the grocery store with its blue lights on, so she wasn't worried about anyone stealing her vehicle.

Archie left her son sleeping when she went inside.

Former Hinds County Deputy James Myers, who was providing security at the store, testified he was the officer in the vehicle that night. He said he had just made a nightly deposit for the store.

During Myers' testimony, prosecutors played a store video surveillance tape of the parking lot, which showed Archie's Toyota Camry being stolen. When Archie came out of the store, she couldn't find her vehicle and went to Myers for help.

At one point in the 10- to 15-minute video clip, an agonized Archie is seen crumbling to the pavement.

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Contact Jimmie E. Gates at 601-961-7212 or jgates@gannett.com. Follow @jgatesnews on Twitter.