Multiple murder case has hearing
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Nov 30, 2006
DURHAM -- Quadruple murder charges against an admitted drug trafficker began their journey through the court system Wednesday, with District Attorney Mike Nifong giving defense attorneys 1,563 pages of documents about the case.
Nifong, who announced earlier he would seek the death penalty against defendant Rodrick Vernard Duncan, said the defense team would receive a total of 3,000 to 4,000 pages by Friday.*
He also promised lawyers Barry Winston and Thomas Maher that they would receive "numerous video files" soon.
Defendants facing possible capital punishment are entitled by law to two court-appointed attorneys if they cannot afford counsel of their own.
The 27-year-old Duncan did not attend Wednesday's brief court hearing. He is in custody for federal drug crimes, to which he has admitted guilt.
The quadruple murder charges arose from a Nov. 19, 2005, incident at a townhouse in the Breckenridge subdivision off Hope Valley Road.
Killed that day were Lennis Harris Jr., 24; LaJuan Coleman, 27; Jamal Holloway, also 27; and Jonathan Skinner, 26. All were from Durham except Skinner, who lived in Raleigh.
Harris and Skinner were cousins.
The four were found on the floor of a second-story bedroom, each with a bullet wound to the head.
In addition, 22-year-old Allen Shuler was wounded by gunfire.
A sixth man, Nacoree Upchurch, 27, reportedly escaped the bullets by leaping from a window onto a patio.
In a news conference last month, Police Chief Steve Chalmers said he believed the crimes were "drug-motivated."
"Multiple individuals were involved in this," Chalmers added, hinting that more arrests might follow.
Chalmers would not say whether he believed Duncan was the triggerman.
"In the 28 years that I have been in Durham County, this is by far the most egregious single act of violence that has occurred in this county," Nifong said during the same news conference. "And I don't recall having heard or read about anything prior to my arriving here that in any way approaches this in terms of overall violence, destruction of human life."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-793981.html
* The DA ain't wasting time handing over discovery on this one. Maybe it is because he has some real evidence.
I need help to translate this bullsh*t editorial from the Herald Sun...
Murder to probation
The Herald-Sun
November 29, 2006 6:02 pm
At first blush, an article in Wednesday's Herald-Sun about reduced charges in a murder case might seem like a simple case of a Durham court letting a killer off easy.
It's true that the facts in the case seem cut and dried. Three guys in a car at Southpoint Mall during the holiday season two years ago were up to no good -- engaged in a drug deal. Things went south, and one of them wound up dead with a bullet in his head. The other two were charged with murder.
Case closed? Not so fast. As often happens, the facts in this case might get in the way of a simplistic story line.
Julius Gray and Barry Ford Evans were initially charged with murder in the death of Harvey Dennard Wiggins. That charge carries penalties including life in prison or death by execution. But as it turned out, Gray pleaded guilty to a minor drug charge and was sentenced to two years of probation and was fined $200. Evans was charged with involuntary manslaughter and also received probation.
What happened? Well, for one thing the victim's mother encouraged Assistant District Attorney Mitchell Garrell to reach the plea arrangement, Garrell reported. He said that if she had asked him to prosecute the case fully, he would have done so.
It makes one wonder about prosecutorial discretion and the power of a victim's family. If a DA believed that a light sentence was called for in a case, would he seek a heavier sentence based only on the wishes of a victim's family?
Well, it's something to think about. As we said, it was a complicated case. Wiggins apparently went to the mall intending to buy marijuana from Gray and Evans. But according to defense lawyer Bill Thomas, Wiggins pulled a gun and wound up being shot himself, apparently by Evans.
Gray was only the driver, Thomas said. He was an NCCU student with a once-bright future whose life has been shattered by the incident. The case may be complicated, but it holds one sure lesson for young people. Don't put yourself in a situation like this -- things could go south for you too, and you might not get off as easily.
URL for this article: http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-793788.html
This is the case in which the father of one of the victims, Lennis Harris, is a retired fireman and was really upset about the DNA test sample taken months earlier languishing while the Duke DNA was rushed through. He complained that there was little happening investigatively. Liefong may have let this case cool while he pursued the Duke case to get elected. I don't know what the cops were doing on this case, if anything, but it doesn't sound like a very good job has been done at all. For instance, just letting DNA sit at a lab that long is going ton open up a big opportunity for the defense.
Frankly, I think the only people in Durham who give a damn about such terrible crimes are the victims and their families and a handful of resident conservatives who actually have a social conscious. Since Durham is run by rats, I wouldn't expect to see serious crime prevention or moral outrage over these events. It will just go on as it has.