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Kyriq Rasheed Seabrooks, 20, pleaded no contest Sept. 3 to charges of second-degree murder, attempted robbery and use of a firearm, according to court records.

As part of a plea agreement reached in Â鶹´«Ã½¹ÙÍø Circuit Court, additional charges that included aggravated murder, felony murder and possession of a firearm by a violent felon were dropped.

On June 13, 2024, police found 21-year-old Dontae R. Muse dead in a car that had crashed into an outbuilding in the 2400 block of Cornell Drive Northwest. Seabrooks was arrested about two weeks later.

“The commonwealth believes that the defendant and others planned the robbery of a local drug dealer for money and marijuana,� defense attorneys Aaron Houchens and Charles Bullen wrote in a pretrial motion.

Prosecutors could not be reached for comment Tuesday or Wednesday.

After the shooting, which was believed to have happened in a nearby park, police seized cell phones from Seabrooks and others they believed were involved in the killing.

A text found on Seabrooks’ phone included the passage: “NBS we gotta take um down today,� according to the motion filed by Houchens and Bullen, who had sought to have the message excluded on the grounds that it was inadmissible hearsay.

Seabrooks did not write the message, the motion states, “nor is there evidence that the defendant responded to or adopted it in any way that would render it admissible.�

The attorneys also stated in court papers that the only known eyewitness to the shooting rebuked the commonwealth’s theory.

Seabrooks had been scheduled for a three-day jury trial starting Monday. But according to court records, the plea agreement was struck to avoid the risk of litigation.