Michael Sherrill would be sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of Cynthia Gayle Dotson Wilson. According to court documents Michael Sherrill would stab Cynthia Gayle Dotson Wilson repeatedly before slitting her throat and setting her house on fire. The murder took place in 1984 and Michael Sherrill was sentenced to death in 2009
North Carolina Death Row Inmate List
Michael Sherrill 2021 Information
| Offender Number: | 0366770 |
| Inmate Status: | ACTIVE |
| Probation/Parole/Post Release Status: | INACTIVE |
| Gender: | MALE |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Ethnic Group: | EUROPEAN/N.AM./AUSTR |
| Birth Date: | 01/07/1956 |
| Age: | 65 |
| Current Location: | CENTRAL PRISON |
Michael Sherrill More News
A former boyfriend choked up as he talked about being with Cynthia Dotson just hours before she was found dead in her west Charlotte mobile home, which was 25 years ago on Sunday.
The man accused of killing her, Michael Sherrill, sat motionless and showed no emotion in a Mecklenburg County courtroom Monday. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
Fire investigators testified they found Dotson’s body in her trailer with stab wounds in her chest. She was badly burned from a pile of clothing still on fire beside her.
Her former boyfriend, Rick Bond, told jurors he’d been with Dotson the night before, but he knew nothing about the murder until police questioned him later.
Police said they believe Sherrill knew Dotson from her job as a topless dancer, and that he killed her before setting fire to her trailer in an effort to cover up the crime.
In fact, prosecutors revealed in court they plan to tell jurors about a similar fire set on Greenhill Avenue about eight months after Dotson’s slaying. Prosecutors believe it too was set to hide a slaying scene. Inside were the bodies of Linda Taylor, Jackson Bostic and his 14-year-old daughter, Amy.
Sherrill is charged in those cases as well.
All of the killings went unsolved for more than 20 years until the police department’s cold case squad linked them to Sherrill. Investigators have never talked about a motive, but that’s likely to change soon as testimony continues.