Eastern North Carolina
Victims of the State

18 Cases

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James Alan Gell was convicted in 1998 of the robbery and murder of Allen Ray Jenkins, a 56-year-old retired truck driver. Gell was sentenced to death. The prosecution argued that the murder occurred around April 3 when other evidence indicated that it occurred closer to April 14, when Gell was out of state. Two girls, Crystal Morris, 15, and Shanna Hall, 16, were the state's only witnesses against Gell. The prosecution concealed witness statements of 17 people who saw the victim alive days after the only day Gell could have committed the murder. In addition, the prosecution withheld an audiotape of one of its witnesses, saying she had to “make up a story.” On retrial in 2004, a jury acquitted Gell of all charges.  (CNO) (RCNH) (RCNH #2)  [9/05]

Sylvester Smith was convicted of raping Gloria Ogundeji and Janell Smith, ages four and five. The victims were the daughter and niece of the woman with whom Smith had been staying. The conviction was based on the testimony of the girls. In 2004, the girls came forward and revealed that their grandmother, Fannie Mae Davis, had pressured them into accusing Smith in order to protect the actual perpetrator, their 9-year-old cousin. Smith was released, but in 2005, Gov. Mike Easley had the opportunity to pardon Smith, but refused to. In 1984, he was the District Attorney who prosecuted Smith, and apparently, it is hard for him to admit that he made a mistake.

During winter 1988-89, Edenton police attended a Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) seminar. Shortly thereafter accusations of mass child abuse began to surface involving the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton. More than 90 children accused 20 adults including the mayor and the sheriff with 429 instances of child sexual abuse. Seven adults were eventually charged. Charges were dropped against three. Two were allowed to plead no contest. Two, Bob Kelly and Dawn Wilson, were found guilty of multiple charges of child sex abuse and given long sentences. The convictions were overturned on appeal and new trials were ordered. The cases were finally settled in 1999 when all charges were dropped against Kelly.  (Religious Tolerance)  [7/05]

Johnnie Beck, 18, used a hunting rifle to shoot twice into the chest of Jeffery Watts, 19, in the parking lot of a Whiteville Burger King. Watts had just stabbed Johnnie's twin, Ronnie Beck, three times in the chest and once in the arm, just before turning on Johnnie and slicing off his left thumb. Johnnie was charged with second-degree murder as the state argued that the second shot was premeditated murder, even though it was fired only one to two seconds after the first. Watts happened to be a relative of state senator R.C. Soles. There was a last minute change of judges before trial and the trial was marked by jury tampering. The defense argued self-defense, but Beck was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to a minimum of 10 years imprisonment.

Beck was released in June 2006 after the charge was reduced to manslaughter and he was released with time served. Beck's father spent half-a-million dollars on lawyers and investigators before successfully having his son's murder conviction set-aside.  (Blue Line Radio)  [3/07]

(Federal Case)  Army Captain Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of the murder of his wife Collette, 26, and the murders of two daughters, Kimberly, 5, and Kristen, 2. According to MacDonald, he and his family were attacked by intruders to their home at 544 Castle Drive in Fort Bragg, a U.S. military base. MacDonald survived with wounds including a collapsed lung. MacDonald was acquitted of the murders at a Ft. Bragg Army hearing and probably would not have been tried again had he not angered the prosecution by criticizing them during interviews on national TV. MacDonald's Army acquittal meant that he could not be court-martialed, but he could still be tried in federal court and he was. Before his federal trial MacDonald invited author Joe McGinniss on his defense team to write a book and hopefully help to establish his factual innocence. At that trial MacDonald was unfortunately convicted.
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Lee Wayne Hunt was convicted of the murders of Roland “Tadpole” Matthews Jr. and his wife, Lisa K. Matthews. Both were shot execution-style, their throats slit, in their home on a dirt road near Fayetteville. Prosecutors argued that the murders were punishment for an alleged theft of marijuana by Roland from Hunt's drug ring. Hunt was an admitted marijuana dealer. A codefendant, Jerry Dale Cashwell, was also convicted.
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Timothy B. Hennis was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Kathryn Eastburn and the murder of her daughters, Kara, 5, and Erin, 3. Hennis was an Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg. He had been given the Eastburn Family dog two days before the murder because the Eastburns were being transferred to England. The authorities tested blood, semen and hair samples, but none of the tests matched Hennis. The prosecution's case rested on two eyewitnesses who came forward well after the crime, one of whom dramatically altered a description of the perpetrator over time. The prosecution also introduced nearly 100 photographs of the victims' bodies – an inflammatory tactic that led to reversal of the conviction. Upon retrial in 1989, the flaws in the witnesses' testimony were exposed and the jury acquitted Hennis of all charges.  (PC) (ISI)  [7/05]

Levon “Bo” Jones and Larry Lamb were convicted of the murder of Leamon Grady. Jones was sentenced to death while Lamb was sentenced to life imprisonment. A federal judge overturned Jones's conviction in 2006, declaring that the defense provided by Jones's initial defense attorneys was so poor that they missed critical evidence pointing to his innocence. The sole witness accusing Jones of the murder, Lovely Lorden, later admitted in an affidavit that she “was certain that Bo did not have anything to do with Mr. Grady's murder” and that she did not know what happened the night Grady was murdered. Jones's first trial lawyer never bothered to gather the many conflicting statements of Lorden, let alone do the kind of investigation necessary in a first degree murder case. It is possible Lorden would have admitted the truth earlier had the case been investigated and had she been adequately cross-examined. In May 2008, the prosecution dropped charges against Jones, just days before his scheduled retrial. Jones was released the next day.

Jones's codefendant, Larry Lamb, was also convicted due to the testimony of Lorden. Lamb has always maintained his innocence and had turned down a plea offer of a six-year sentence. Lamb plans to ask the newly formed North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission to review his case.  (ACLU)  [5/08]

Terence Garner, a juvenile, was convicted of robbery and attempted murder (shooting a woman, Alice Wise, in the face). Garner was arrested after an accomplice to the crime informed police that the shooter was named Terrance. Garner did not look like the real perpetrator, but was identified anyway by Wise and her boss. Two accomplices with plea deals testified that Garner was the shooter. Later a third accomplice testified that they did not even know Garner. Garner was cleared in 2002.  (NCAFJ) (Frontline) (American Justice) [5/05]

After being imprisoned for an alleged attempted rape in 1925, 17-year-old Junius Wilson was declared insane and sent to Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, a state mental facility. The attempted rape charge was then dropped. In 1932, Wilson was castrated in accordance with state law for “mental defectives and feebleminded inmates” accused of sex crimes. He remained in state custody for 67 years. In 1991, he was found not to be mentally ill, just deaf. In 1992, he was officially freed and within two years he was given a three-bedroom cottage to live in on the grounds of Cherry Hospital. Wilson died in 2001. A 2007 book was published about Wilson entitled Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson.  (Archives)  [4/08]

Christopher Spicer was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Donnie P. Christian. At trial, a jailhouse informant, Charles Pennington, claimed that Spicer had confessed to him that he had committed the murder. The N.C. Supreme Court overturned Spicer's conviction when it was proven that Spicer and Pennington had never been cellmates. At Spicer's retrial, it took the jury only 15 minutes to unanimously acquit him.  (DRE)  [3/06]

Frank Dove, Fred Dove, George Williams, and Willie Hardison were sentenced to death for the murder of Cyrus Jones. Jones was shot on a highway about a mile and a half from the town of Swansboro where he lived. The convictions of the first three were based solely on the testimony of Hardison. On the morning of his execution in 1923, Hardison admitted he had perjured himself to implicate the other three under the coercive threats of police. In 1928, the three men each received an unconditional pardon from the N.C. governor.  (News Article) (Mugshots) (MOJ) (ISI)  [4/08]

Leo Waters was convicted of raping a woman. DNA tests exonerated Waters in 2003 and implicated Joel Bill Caulk, a Massachusetts inmate. Waters was pardoned in 2005.  (IP)

Lesly Jean was convicted in 1982 of sexually assaulting Alice Kathleen Wilson. Jean's convictions were vacated in 1991 because the prosecution failed to disclose that the victim and a key witness were hypnotized prior to their identification of Jean. Charges against Jean were dropped and he was released. In 2001, DNA tests exonerated Jean. He was pardoned and awarded compensation by the state.  (IP)  [7/05]

Henry Lee Hunt was convicted of the murders of Jackie Ray Ransom and Larry Jones. Ransom had married Dorothy Locklear while she was still married to Rogers Locklear. Dorothy and Rogers then hired A. R. Barnes to kill Ransom so Dorothy could collect on a $25,000 life insurance policy. The policy paid a double indemnity for accidental death including homicide. Barnes recruited his brother, Elwell Barnes to help in the murder. Someone shot Ransom to death on Sept. 8, 1984 in the woods near a bar. A week later, on Sept. 14, someone shot and killed a man named Larry Jones, apparently because Jones was telling police what he knew about the Ransom murder. Jones was implicating Rogers Locklear in the murder, but made no mention of Hunt. Jones was buried in a shallow grave.

A. R. Barnes confessed to the crimes. Subsequently, he recanted and blamed Hunt, who had a criminal record and was in prison for a drug offense. Other witnesses also pointed to Hunt, although their initial statements conflicted with each other. According to two reconstruction experts, witness Jerome Ratley's account of Jones's murder could not have happened the way that Ratley told the jury at Hunt's trial. Prosecutors introduced a shovel into evidence that they said Hunt used to bury Jones, but they did not tell the jury that the soil on the shovel did not match the soil in which Jones had been buried.

Hunt consistently maintained his innocence and passed two lie detector tests regarding the murders. While such tests do not prove Hunt's innocence, they raise doubt about his guilt. Elwell Barnes signed an 1989 affidavit in which he wrote that Hunt “has been convicted for a crime that A. R. Barnes, Jerome Ratley, Roger Locklear and myself committed.” The prosecution withheld evidence and then “lost” field notes and other files that would have undermined the state's case. In 2003, the state was refusing to allow lawyers to see the evidence that remained. Hunt was executed by lethal injection on Sept. 13, 2003.  (Charlotte Observer) (Greensboro News & Record)  [5/08]

In 1988, Eddie Hatcher and a fellow American Indian took over The Robesonian newspaper offices in Lumberton and held 20 staff members hostage. The pair demanded that the state governor commit to an independent investigation of allegations of crooked county government, unsolved murders and rampant drug trafficking in the area. The pair released the hostages after then Gov. Jim Martin agreed. A state task force later determined their allegations to be unfounded. However, years later, a federal investigation had by 2006 led to the arrests of six sheriff deputies and two Lumberton police officers, with more arrests likely. Deputies were living far beyond their means with profits from the drug trade flowing up Interstate 95.

Hatcher faced federal charges on the newspaper takeover, but by representing himself at trial convinced a jury to acquit him. The state then filed charges on which he was convicted. One condition of his parole was that he not enter Robeson County. In 1998, following parole completion, Hatcher ignored the advice of friends and foes and returned to Robeson County.  He was a folk hero to some and became very active in local politics. He even expressed possible intentions of running for a seat in the state legislature.

In 1999, Hatcher's friend, Brian McMillan was shot to death in Maxton. Bullets from three different guns were found at the scene, implying more than one person committed the shooting. Hatcher was arrested alone after the shooting and none of the recovered bullets were fired from his gun. No one else was ever charged in the shooting. McMillan's mother has even stated that she knows Hatcher did not kill her son. At trial in 2000, the DA presented four criminals and an illiterate 20-year-old as witnesses. The witnesses convinced a jury to convict Hatcher of McMillan's murder. Hatcher received a life without parole sentence. He died in prison at age 51 in 2009.  (Screwed Central)  [2/07]

Dwayne Allen Dail was convicted in 1989 of entering a Goldsboro home and raping a 12-year-old girl who lived there. The girl initially described her assailant as having shoulder-length light brown hair and a beard. Dail and others later testified that at the time of the attack his hair was bleached and cut in a “Billy Idol” style, and that he was incapable of growing anything more than patchy facial hair. Nevertheless, the girl identified Dail as her assailant and an expert testified that hairs found at the crime scene were microscopically consistent with those of Dail. Dail reportedly turned down an offer to plead guilty in exchange for three years of probation. A jury sentenced him to two life terms plus 15 years. In 2007, DNA tests proved that Dail was not the girl's assailant, and he was released and pardoned.  (IP) (News-Argus)  [10/07]

Keith Brown was convicted of sexually assaulting a 32-year-old woman and her 9-year-old daughter. Brown, who is mentally retarded, confessed to the crime under the pressure of police interrogation. He was released in 1997 after DNA tests exonerated him and implicated a Florida inmate. NC Governor Hunt pardoned Brown in 1999.  (IP)  [4/08]