For those who didn’t see the stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska coming, we ought to remember what Darius Nathaniel Sessoms did five years earlier in the same state.
In August 2020, Sessoms was arrested and charged with shooting a 5-year-old boy at point-blank range.
The provocation? According to his family, he rode into Sessions’ yard with his bicycle.
Two years and change later, Sessoms entered a so-called Alford plea — where a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges the state has evidence to convict — on a first-degree murder charge in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to The Associated Press.
Today is the 5th anniversary of the infamous murder of Cannon Hinnant, 5, by his next door neighbor Darius Sessoms in Wilson, NC.
Hinnant was playing with his two older sisters when he crossed into Sessoms’ yard and was shot at point blank range execution style. pic.twitter.com/22l0LWYcrq
— National Conservative (@NatCon2022) September 9, 2025
“The plea allowed Sessoms to avoid a potential death sentence had the case gone to trial. Superior Court Judge L. Lamont Wiggins had declared in October that Sessoms was eligible for the death penalty,” the outlet reported.
The outrage began when police responded to a report of a shooting at a Wilson, North Carolina, mobile home park.
Sessoms, then 25, was charged with killing Cannon Hinnant. Capt. Steve Stroud said at the time that they had performed first aid on the boy until he could be taken to the hospital — where he sadly passed away, WSET-TV reported.
Should America consider new prison options, like offshore prison colonies?
Cannon, it turned out, had been playing in the front yard of his dad’s home with his sisters and aunt.
Sessoms returned to his house after the shooting, and was arrested the next day in Goldsboro.
His plea, his mother told the media, “brings us a little bit of peace” — in part because the 5-year-old’s sisters wouldn’t have to testify during a trial.
“Knowing that we are walking out of here today and we don’t have to come back” was a relief, Bonny Parker said.
And, surprise of surprises, mental health issues were involved in this case, too.
“Sessoms’ parents previously told The Wilson Times their son appeared to be hallucinating the day of the shooting and may have been on drugs,” the Associated Press reported.
In addition to Sessoms receiving life behind bars, his girlfriend — Aolani Takemi Marie Pettit — received 18 months of probation and a suspended sentence for felony obstruction of justice.
The mental health element isn’t the only similarity this case has to the Zarutska killing, either.
Iryna was a young woman with three-quarters of her life ahead of her, most likely. As for Cannon Hinnant, he had his entire future ahead of him. And both lives were cut short by crazed monsters, allegedly.
“One minute he is enjoying his life, the next it all ends because he rode into his neighbor’s yard,” a GoFundMe campaign started by the family read.
They’re right. And it shouldn’t be that way.
This is what we’re up against. This is what the left is willing to apologize for. The longer we ignore it, the angrier America is going to become.
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