James Jordan Sr, father of basketball legend Michael Jordan, was murdered in July 1993 while driving home from a party.

His body was found two weeks later. Two men, Larry Demery and Daniel Green, were charged with his murder.

Demery recently spoke for the first time in a phone interview on the podcast What it Was Like.

He described the events of that night, which led to the murder of James Jordan.

Demery and Green were childhood friends who had recently become involved in robbery.

They were out looking for potential victims when they stumbled upon James Jordan’s car, which was parked by the side of the highway.

They thought the man inside was a dope dealer and decided to rob him. They planned to drive him down the road and leave him there, but things did not go as planned.

Green had a pistol, and he accidentally shot James Jordan while he was asleep.

“Daniel had [the pistol]. 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.”

After the shooting, Demery and Green pulled James Jordan’s body into the passenger seat and drove off in his car.

They drove to a remote location, where they dumped his body off a bridge. The body was later found by a local fisherman.

Demery was arrested shortly after the murder. He was 17 years old at the time.

Green was also arrested and charged with the murder, but he maintains his innocence to this day. Both men were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

“I never heard from Michael Jordan or anyone in his family. 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.”

The murder of James Jordan had a profound effect on Michael Jordan. He retired from basketball soon after his father’s death and cited his father’s murder as the reason.

“It made me realise how short life is, how quickly things can end, how innocently,” he said at his retirement press conference.

For many years, the details of James Jordan’s murder were not clear. Green always maintained his innocence, and Demery had never given a public interview until now.

Demery’s account of the events sheds new light on one of the most shocking crimes of the 1990s.

Demery’s next parole hearing is in December 2024.

If he is released, he hopes to restore relationships and build new ones with family members he has not seen in many years.

He also wants to break the cycle of crime in his family and become a positive role model for his grandchildren.