Four murder suspects indicted
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 17, 2007 : 11:08 pm ET
DURHAM -- Four men were indicted by the county grand jury this week on murder charges, including two who allegedly participated in a "contract killing" for which $10,000 was said to have changed hands.
The indicted suspects are Lee Brewer, Daniel Fraley, Angel Luis Richardson and Lemuel "Zeke" Sherman.
Indictments officially move criminal cases into the Superior Court system, where they eventually will go to trial or be plea-bargained.
Brewer and Fraley are accused in the 1999 slaying of 63-year-old Charles Johnson, who was found lying in a pool of blood inside his Virgie Street home. At the time, investigators said they retrieved marijuana plants and two weapons from the house.
The other two men indicted this week, Richardson, 20, and Sherman, 23, are charged in the purported contract killing.
Investigators contend they gunned down 23-year-old Marlon Rand last month.
Police reports indicated that Rand was at his car on North Street, the street on which he lived, when a man approached and shot him. The victim tried to run but collapsed and died of multiple gunshot wounds behind a drug rehabilitation facility on the same street.
Sherman and Rand reportedly knew each other.
Without elaborating, prosecutor Tracey Cline said in court recently that she believed $10,000 was paid for a "hit" on Rand.
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Murder suspect's bond is raised
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan.17, 2007 : 11:08 pm ET
DURHAM -- An alleged gang member who has bounced in and out of court while awaiting trial in a first-degree murder case was hauled before a judge yet again on Wednesday, accused of dealing drugs while free on bond.
Prosecutor Tracey Cline asked that bail for the suspect, Michael Wayne Goldston, be revoked because police caught him with a large rock of crack cocaine at his side in April 2005 and then videotaped him making what appeared to be a "hand-to-hand sale" of narcotics in December.
A tape of the purported December transaction was played Wednesday for Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson.
But Hudson noted that the Constitution does not allow criminal suspects to be held without bond, so he set bail for Goldston at $300,000 -- far below the $5 million requested by Cline.
"I do not agree with some people who believe there is a revolving door to the jail," said Hudson.
"However, it appears this defendant has a particular knack of going to jail, getting out and committing crimes," the judge said of Goldston. "His opportunities have run out. He is a danger to the people of this county."
Goldston, identified by police as a street-gang member, is accused of murdering Nathan L. Alston over $30 worth of cocaine in 2004. The victim was 24. -cut-
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