Ayden double murder suspect with cancer dies

A man accused of killing two people in a 2022 shooting at an Ayden convenience store has died, his attorney told a Pitt County judge during a hearing on Oct. 3.

Walter Wilkie, the defense counsel for Akyree Collins-Smith, 26, of Greenville, said that he received word of his client’s death on Sept. 18. The news came during a murder status hearing at the Pitt County Detention Center presided over by Pitt County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Foster.

Collins-Smith was charged in the shooting deaths of Walter Kyle Irving Cooley, 26, and Keenan Damond Smith, 25, both of Winterville, at Le Le Convenience Mart, 4448 Lee St., in July of 2022.

Collins-Smith had been diagnosed with cancer prior to the shooting. Wilkie in previous hearings said that Collins-Smith was aware that his case was terminal.

One of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting and the other died of his injuries at ECU Health Medical Center, police said at the time.

Collins-Smith was located by Durham police after the shooting and taken into custody. Due to his illness he had spent much of his incarceration at Central Prison in Raleigh and had not appeared in Pitt County court hearings.

In April, Wilkie told the court that doctors had begun to transition Collins-Smith into a hospice care-style setting rather than continue life-prolonging efforts. Foster at that time denied a motion to reduce Collins-Smith’s bond.

Joel Stadiem, Pitt County assistant district attorney, said that his office had confirmed Collins-Smith was deceased. He said that a legal abatement of the defendant’s charges has been finished.