Wilmjax News

DURHAM, N.C.—The Durham Sheriff’s Department has named Tory Jarel Nelson as the person believed to have killed Deacon Charles Forest Davis, 89.
 
Davis was found brutally murdered in his home along 2913 Nellowood Street on September 26. 
 
According to Sheriff Hill, there have been very few leads in the case. They are hoping to find and speak with Nelson.

Read article.

A Nash County grand jury on Tuesday indicted a man accused of stabbing two women inside a Rocky Mount church a month ago.

Tommy Lee Holiday, 30, a homeless man, was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and two counts of armed robbery.

Holiday is accused of attacking Debbie Kornegay, 58, and Eve Beasley, 60, on Oct. 18 while the two were preparing food inside Lakeside Baptist Church for the Meals on Wheels program. Kornegay died from her injuries, and Beasley still is recovering at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

“She’s doing great,” said Billy Beasley, Eve Beasley’s son. “She had her last surgery Monday, and she’s got family with her.

“She can talk, and they get her up every day so she can sit in a chair.”

Read more.

(11/16/07 –EDGECOMBE COUNTY) - Authorities arrested three teenagers and charged them in the murder a Edgecombe County convenience store clerk.

It happened Thursday night outside Princeville at Exum’s Grocery on Highway 33.

The sheriff says the 61-year-old store clerk was alone inside when a group of teens tried to rob him. Several shots were exchanged. The clerk tried to run after the gunman, but collapsed in the store yard.

Officers found Ahmad Nimer laying in the grass with gunshot wounds to his upper torso and hand.

He was rushed to the hospital– but died a few hours later.

Read more.

Jose Aguilar told Onslow County Sheriff’s Department deputies that his 2-year-old son had slipped in the tub, falling and hitting his head. The boy was rushed to the hospital in a coma.

But investigators said two things bothered them: the evidence at the scene did not match Aguilar’s story and Aguilar had been charged with abusing his son when the boy was 10 months old.

When the boy died nine days later on April 10, 2006, deputies arrested Aguilar and charged him with murder.

Aguilar, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and felony child abuse resulting in serious injury and was sentenced to a combined total of 28 to 35 years in prison by Superior Court Judge John Nobles.

Read more.

(11/09/07 –DURHAM) - Authorities need help finding a person of interest in the unsolved murder of a Durham church deacon.

On September 26, family members found 89-year-old Charles Forest Davis stabbed to death in his home.

The day following the murder deputies spotted Davis’ stolen car with two men in it. After a short chase, the men fled the car on foot but police were unable to apprehend either one of the men.

Read more.

(10/23/07 — RALEIGH) - The man charged with stabbing two Meals on Wheels workers in Rocky Mount faced a judge Tuesday morning as the District Attorney announced his office will seek the death penalty in this case.

The hearing this morning lasted only a few minutes. The judge reviewed the charges and a prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office announced they plan to seek the death penalty in the stabbing death of 58-year-old Debbie Korengay.

In the courtroom, Tommie Holiday, 30, said nothing and paused before acknowledging the judge when asked if he understood the crime he’s facing - first degree murder charges in the death of Debbie Korengay and first degree attempted murder in the repeated stabbing of Eve Beasley.

Read more.

A Catawba County man charged with driving drunk through downtown Hickory was sentenced Friday to at least 13 years and five months in prison in connection with a crash that left a woman dead.

Jurors deliberated for five hours before deciding to find 21-year-old Enrique Cardenas Zavala guilty of second-degree murder in the Sept. 29, 2006, death of 55-year-old Rena Moore. Her husband, 59-year-old Jerry Moore, was critically injured.

Attorneys on both sides said they agreed on the facts — that Cardenas Zavala had gone to Hickory High School’s homecoming football game and decided to drink alcohol. Afterward, they agreed, he stopped at a convenience store and bought some beer.

He was speeding through downtown Hickory’s streets, going 62 mph in a 25 mph zone, when he drove his 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix through a red light and slammed into the Moores’ pickup truck.

Read more.

HICKORY, N.C. — After deliberations continued this morning in a drunken driving case in Catawba County, 21-year-old Enrique Zavalas is found guilty of second degree murder in the killing a woman last September near downtown Hickory.

Police say Zavalas’ blood alcohol level was above the legal limit and he was driving at more than twice the speed limit when he crashed into Jerry and Rena Moore’s truck.

Rena Moore was killed and Jerry Moore was seriously injured.

Prosecutors say the jury was to decide between second degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Read more.

(10/19/07 — ROCKY MOUNT) - Police arrested and charged a man Friday with Thursday’s stabbing of two Meals on Wheels workers at Lakeside Baptist Church in Rocky Mount.

Tommy Lee Holiday,30, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery, and larceny of a motor vehicle. Holiday confessed to RMPD investigators, and he is currently being held at the Nash County jail with no bond.

They found one of the victims’ stolen vehicle Thursday evening and then found someone with the woman’s stolen cell phone. That person tipped police to Holiday.

Read more.

Fayetteville police have arrested another person in connection with a February shooting outside a nightclub on Murchison Road.

Ondra Little, 37, of the 700 block of Maxine Street, was charged Wednesday with attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon. Bail was set at $5,000.

Little is accused of trying to steal money from Roshawn Douglas Elliott.

According to court documents, Elliott, who was 30, was shot Feb. 24 in the chest and pelvis while outside of EJ’s. The nightclub is located at 1911 Murchison Road.

Elliott died March 2.

Little is the third man to be charged in connection with the shooting at EJs.

Read more.

CARTHAGE — A Moore County jury decided Wednesday that Mario Lynn Phillips should die for murdering four men in December 2003.

The jury deliberated nearly four-and-a-half hours before sentencing Phillips for the murders of Eddie Lynn Ryals, Carl “C.J.” Justice Jr., Joseph Allen Harden and Daryl Hobson.

They were shot and stabbed to death during a robbery in Ryals’ home in the Carolina Lakes mobile home park in Moore County.

Ryals’ girlfriend, Amanda Cooke Varner, was shot and stabbed but survived.

Renee Yvette McLaughlin and Sean Maurice Ray have been charged with helping Phillips commit the murders and robbery. They are awaiting trial.

As he has throughout the trial, Phillips showed little reaction. He has told the judge he is taking Prozac, an anti-depressant, and Haldol, a drug used to treat psychotic symptoms.

Read more.