Grand jury indicts man in quadruple homicide
By BriAnne Dopart : The Herald-Sun,
Oct 17, 2006 : 12:04 am ET
DURHAM -- An admitted drug trafficker was indicted Monday in last year's execution-style quadruple homicide, and District Attorney Mike Nifong said the Breckenridge subdivision slayings were the most senseless act of violence in Durham history.
A news conference called by Nifong and Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers came 11 months after what authorities labeled drug-related bloodshed and after Chalmers said investigators had "strong leads." The probe remained mostly dormant -- at least in public release of any developments -- since then.
Rodrick Vernard Duncan, 27, was released from jail on a vastly reduced bond just two weeks before he allegedly took part in the mass murders, according to details released at the news conference.
Duncan, who lists a Durham address, was indicted by a grand jury on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery. Chalmers would not say if Duncan was the gunman in the Nov. 19, 2005, slayings at 2222 Alpine Road.
Lennis Harris Jr., 24, LaJuan Coleman, 27, Jamel Holloway, 27, and Jonathan Skinner, 26, were pronounced dead at the scene of what police termed a "drug-motivated homicide." Each was shot in the back of the head. Digital scales, a white powder and a green leafy substance were recovered from the scene, as were a 9 mm handgun, spent shell casings and unfired ammunition.
One man survived the attack with serious gunshot injuries and another jumped through a second-story window to safety. It is The Herald-Sun's policy not to name crime victims.
Duncan is in federal custody awaiting sentencing for a 2005 drug trafficking offense that took place only weeks before the brutal slaying, Chalmers told a roomful of reporters and photographers.
Durham Police investigators arrested Duncan Nov. 4, 2005, and charged him with two counts of drug trafficking by transport; two counts of drug trafficking by possession; two counts of possession of cocaine with the intent to manufacture, sell or deliver; maintaining a vehicle for the sale of drugs; possession of a stolen firearm; possession of marijuana; possession of drug paraphernalia; and resisting, delaying and obstructing a police officer.
Duncan's bond was set at $500,000 at the time of his arrest. It was reduced to $100,000 and he was released Nov. 5.
Nifong said the lower amount was "still a substantial bond" and was not similar to controversial bond reduction issues in recent months that have allowed criminals to get out of jail quickly.
Duncan, Nifong suggested, might have been able to post such a "substantial" bond because he was "a very good customer" of a bondsman.
Once Duncan was released, a federal task force assumed the armed trafficking case and took him into custody on April 5, 2006. Duncan pleaded guilty July 5 to the trafficking charges and is being held in Winston-Salem, police said.
Chalmers said police suspected Duncan of the quadruple slayings for some time before he and Nifong made Monday's announcement. He would not elaborate on when Duncan became a named suspect in the murders.
Early in the investigation, police said the one investigator assigned to the case was pursuing leads aggressively. At Monday's press conference, Chalmers said the investigator got "overwhelmed," so more men were assigned to the case after Jan. 1. However homicide investigator S.W. Vaughan told the Herald-Sun last spring that he was the sole investigator working the case.
In the following months, the department claimed it assigned at least three more investigators to the probe. Still, no new information was released about the case with the exception of a returned search warrant and the autopsies of the four young victims.
Chalmers promised Monday that police would be making additional arrests in the homicides and that the investigation was "ongoing."
Lennis Harris Sr., a fire inspector with the city of Durham and father of one of the slain men, said he was too emotional to speak about the arrest in the case.
"You think you'd be happy," he said, his voice breaking, "but there's just so many emotions."
Attempts to reach parents of the other victims were unsuccessful.
While the investigation into the shocking quadruple homicide in an upscale neighborhood disappeared from headlines in the past several months, the murders hadn't faded from the minds of residents of the Breckenridge subdivision.
A resident who lives a few doors down from 2222 Alpine Road asked not to be named but said she was familiar with three of the victims from going to Durham high schools. Skinner, a Raleigh resident, grew up in Winston-Salem.
The victims she knew were kind people who she believed could not have been involved in the sale of drugs, as search warrants and police news releases have suggested, the resident said.
"I couldn't believe it happened here ... I thought 'Oh, man, that's three doors down!'" She added that she never thought police would solve the case.
Another resident who had the case on her mind and also asked not to be named, said she was both thrilled and surprised to know police had charged someone in the case.
"I thought they were never going to solve it," she said. "I thought it was just a hit, you know?"
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-779259.html
* Guess if we want to see the DA in action on this one, we will just have to vote for him.
Gag me.