Jason Hurst was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for robbery murder. According to court documents Jason Hurst would shoot and kill Daniel Branch during a robbery. Jason Hurst would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
A jury has sentenced Jason Hurst to death for the murder and robbery of Daniel Branch in Randolph County two years ago.
After sentencing Wednesday evening, Hurst, 25, of High Point apologized to Branch’s family.
He said he had been praying for a death sentence to make himself, and perhaps the victim’s family, feel better.
Regardless of Hurst’s wishes, the case will be automatically appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court, his attorneys said.
Hurst confessed to the slaying when he was arrested, investigators said.
His lawyers, Jon Megerian and Frank Wells of Asheboro, admitted at the trial’s outset that their client killed Branch, 25. Their defense was that Hurst was mentally ill, suffering from a borderline personality disorder. They argued that, at worst, Hurst was guilty of second-degree murder.
“It was a terrible disappointment,” Megerian said. “We thought we at least had a shot at saving that boy’s life.”
Hurst said he and Branch, who also lived in High Point, didn’t know each other that well, having met only a few times before the slaying.
They got together June 9, 2002, because the unemployed Branch wanted to sell two guns to raise money for his family. Hurst said he was interested in buying them.
The two drove to a remote field off of Beane Country Road in southwestern Randolph so Hurst could test-fire the guns. That’s when prosecutors said Hurst shot Branch the first time as the victim was setting up a target.
The first blast hit Branch in the abdomen, the second in the side as he tried to run away, and the third in the face after he fell to the ground, prosecutors said.
Afterwards, Hurst stole Branch’s 1977 Ford Thunderbird and sold one of the victim’s guns before leaving the area. He traded the other — the pump shotgun used in the killing — to a cousin after he got to West Virginia. That’s where Hurst was arrested June 11, 2002.
Investigators said Hurst told them he didn’t know why he killed Branch. Defense attorneys said that showed he wasn’t thinking clearly.
But prosecutors said Hurst was simply too ashamed to admit that he killed Branch so he could take his guns and his car to drive to West Virginia to see a pregnant ex-girlfriend.
Defense attorneys submitted 18 mitigating circumstances — including Hurst’s mental illness — for jurors to consider during sentencing.
Jurors deliberated all day Wednesday before delivering their sentence.
Hurst joins 190 other inmates on North Carolina’s Death Row. Five others are from Randolph County: Kenneth Rouse, James Williams, Jeff Kandies, Gary Trull and Ronald Pugh.
John Badgett was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for a murder. According to court documents John Badgett would stab to death Grover Arthur Kiser during what prosecutors say was a robbery. John Badgett would tell the court that Grover Arthur Kiser attacked him first and it was self defense. John Badgett would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Though John Scott Badgett claimed it was self-defense, a judge sentenced him to death Thursday for killing Grover Arthur Kiser.
Badgett admitted in court that he had problems controlling his anger and a history of assaulting people. But he said he wasn’t angry with the jury, which recommended the death sentence over life in prison without parole.
“I just want the jury to know that I have no ill feelings toward them,” Badgett said before Judge John O. Craig III of High Point sentenced him.
Despite the brutality of his younger brother’s murder and his doubts about the defendant’s honesty, Marvin Kiser of Randleman, said he felt sorry for Badgett.
He said some of Badgett’s testimony earlier this week about his tragic childhood hit home and reminded him of his and his brother’s difficult upbringing.
“I feel for Mr. Badgett,” Kiser said Thursday after the trial. “As he was testifying, I was fighting back tears because I felt for him, especially when he was talking about his childhood. It brought back memories of my childhood. It bothered me.”
The jury deliberated Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before delivering their sentencing recommendation about 11:30 a.m.
Afterward, they waited outside the courtroom to give Marvin Kiser their sympathy and tell him they hoped the verdict and sentence gave him some closure in his brother’s death. A tearful Kiser thanked them for their time
“I’m sorry you had to go through this,” he told them.
Badgett confessed to killing Grover Kiser, 55, in the victim’s home about Nov. 20, 2002, by stabbing him the neck. Badgett said Kiser woke up that night, flew into a rage and threatened him.
He said he killed the man out of fear. Defense attorneys said Kiser had a history of mental illness, including five involuntary commitments for psychiatric care.
But prosecutors said that the homeless Badgett killed Kiser during a robbery after the victim let him come in out of the cold and gave him food. They contended that Badgett carefully selected his target: an eccentric older man living alone.
Badgett said he stabbed Kiser as the man came at him. But the prosecution’s take on the evidence was that Badgett attacked Kiser from behind. They argued that he grabbed the man’s hair, reached around and stuck a pocket knife 3 inches into the victim’s throat.
Although Badgett said he left the house and took nothing the night he killed Grover Kiser, he said he later returned and took items from the victim’s home where the body was decomposing on the kitchen floor.
Prosecutors argued that Badgett not only robbed Kiser the night of the murder but also returned later to steal more items.
The stolen property included money, coin collections, a flashlight and Kiser’s pickup. Some of the items were used to get crack, witnesses said.
Asheboro police discovered Kiser’s body on Nov. 30, 2002.
Upset with prosecutors’ claims about the slaying, Badgett took the stand during the sentencing hearing on Tuesday to defend the confession he gave police in December 2002. Badgett also told the jury that when he was 2 his grandfather shot his father to death during a family fight, and that he was frequently abused by an alcoholic stepfather.
Badgett told jurors he had a problem with uncontrollable anger and a history of assaults dating to 1987, when he said he hit a man in the head with a bar stool.
During the sentencing phase of the trial, jurors also heard about a similar slaying that Badgett committed in Asheboro in 1992.
Charged with murder, he pleaded guilty to the reduced offense of manslaughter and served about five years in prison.
A psychiatrist, Elizabeth Pekarek, testified Tuesday that she diagnosed Badgett with “intermittent explosive disorder,” a rare condition characterized by outbursts of anger and aggression with little provocation.
Badgett had an outburst Wednesday during closing arguments, when he accused Assistant District Attorney Andy Gregson of lying and shouted an obscenity. Badgett chose to leave the courtroom for the rest of Gregson’s summation.
With Badgett’s sentencing, the number of defendants from Randolph County on death row increases to seven. He is the second man sentenced to die this year. In March, Jason Wayne Hurst received the death penalty for the murder and robbery of Daniel Lee Branch.
Paul Cummings was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for a robbery murder. According to court documents Paul Cummings would stab to death Jane Head before robbing her residence. Paul Cummings would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
Jane Head, a sixty-two-year-old woman, lived alone in a mobile home in Wilmington. Jane Head’s first career was as a special education and first-grade teacher. At the time of her murder, she was a nanny and home care provider, serving both children and the elderly. Her residence was in the same mobile home park where defendant and his family resided. Approximately three months before the murder, a break-in occurred at Jane Head’s residence in which the intruder stole her television. Mrs. Head told her daughter and investigators that she believed defendant was the perpetrator. Approximately a week before her murder, Mrs. Head telephoned her son’s wife around 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and confided to her in a whispered voice that defendant was banging on her door and that she was afraid.
Defendant disclosed to mental health professionals that on 4 October 2002, the day of the murder, he had been using crack cocaine and drinking beer at a picnic table near the victim’s residence. When he saw the victim arrive, he approached her and asked her for a ride to the store in order to purchase more beer. According to defendant’s recitation to the mental health professionals, the victim agreed to drive defendant to the store, but stated that she needed to use the restroom before leaving. Defendant then decided to rob her to garner cocaine money. Grabbing a small paring knife from her kitchen, defendant awaited his victim’s return from the restroom, after which he stabbed her sixteen times in the face, head, neck, back, shoulder, and chest. While stabbing her, defendant asked the victim “Where is the money?” and when she asked him, “Why are you doing this?” he told her to “Shut up, do you have any money?” Eventually defendant obtained her ATM card, stabbed her a few more times and then demanded her PIN from her. She told him the PIN, which was composed of numbers corresponding to letters that spelled a family member’s name. Defendant put the knife down to record the number on a piece of paper. He then stole the victim’s van, drove it to a store to purchase cigarettes and beer, and then proceeded to the ATM, where he withdrew $400 from the victim’s bank account.
The victim’s daughter, Joni Head Carson, and her husband, Bill Carson, arrived at the victim’s residence at approximately 4:55 p.m. on the day of the murder. They had previously spoken to the victim by telephone at 4:30 p.m. When the victim’s daughter entered the residence, she found her mother lying face down on the guest bedroom floor, with a large pool of blood around her. Mr. Carson called 911, and the couple attempted to resuscitate the victim to no avail.
Officer Kevin Getman of the Wilmington Police Department responded to the scene of the crime. An emergency medical technician told Officer Getman that a window on the adjoining mobile home appeared to have been broken. Officer Getman then entered the nearby mobile home to determine whether any other victims existed. Upon entry Officer Getman, along with Officer Weeks, discovered blood on the blinds and on clothing bundled up beside the window. The officers then obtained a search warrant for the mobile home, which happened to be defendant’s residence. They found a bloody, bent knife matching the description of the victim’s missing paring knife on the ground under the open window of defendant’s residence. The DNA profile of the blood on the knife, the blood on the blinds, the blood on a shirt found in defendant’s mobile home, and blood found in defendant’s sink matched that of the victim.
The next night, 5 October 2002, police responded to a report that defendant and his father were fighting at the mobile home park. Defendant was subsequently arrested for the murder of Jane Head. At the time of his arrest, defendant’s shorts were stained with blood. The DNA profile of the blood on defendant’s shorts matched that of the victim. On 13 January 2003, defendant was indicted by the New Hanover County grand jury for the murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon of Jane Head.
Defendant’s evidence at the guilt-innocence proceeding tended to show that his father, Paul Ransom, was a violent man, especially toward defendant and his mother. Mr. Ransom beat defendant and his mother on multiple occasions, prompting significant intervention by the Department of Social Services. Additionally, the evidence tended to show that defendant abused alcohol and illegal drugs. Psychologist James Hilkey testified as an expert in forensic psychology and drug abuse and addiction. It was his opinion that defendant was intoxicated at the time of the murder and was affected by dysthymia and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, Dr. Hilkey testified that defendant met the criteria for borderline personality disorder.
After hearing this evidence and being instructed on the law, the jury deliberated and returned verdicts finding defendant guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Consistent with the jury’s verdict of guilty of first-degree murder, the trial court moved to the sentencing proceeding of defendant’s trial.
Alexander Polke was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of a police officer. According to court documents Alexander Polke would shoot and kill Randolph County sheriff’s deputy Toney Clayton Summey when the Officer attempted to serve an arrest warrant. Alexander Polke would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
The court procedings of a man accused of murder in the death of a Randolph County Sheriff’s deputy ended Monday.
Alexander Polke pled guilty last week to the first-degree murder of Deputy Toney Summey and was awaiting sentencing.
Jurors were selected last week for the punishment phase of the case after Polke elected to plead guilty and by-pass his trial.
The sentence came down today before the case ever made it the the trial phase.
The two deputies had gone to Polke’s home to serve assault and threat warrants on him April 27, 2003. Authorities contend Polke scuffled with the deputies, took Summey’s gun and shot both officers killing Summey.
Christopher Goss was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for a robbery murder. According to court documents Christopher Goss forced his way into a home where he would murder Deborah Veler before robbing the home. Christopher Goss would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
At trial, Kenneth Courtner testified that at approximately noon on Sunday, 21 September 2003, he took his three-year-old son Devin, the grandson of Deborah Sturgill Veler (the victim), to stay overnight with his grandmother at her residence in Jefferson, North Carolina. Denise Veler Courtner, Devin’s mother and the victim’s daughter, had made arrangements to pick up Devin at approximately 6:30 a.m. the next morning, 22 September 2003, at a church parking lot adjacent to State Highway 221.
Nancy Kerley, Devin’s paternal grandmother, testified that sometime after 6:30 a.m. on 22 September 2003 she was driving to work when she passed the church parking lot where the victim had arranged to meet Ms. Courtner. Ms. Kerley observed Ms. Courtner sitting in a truck in the parking lot and stopped to speak with her, whereupon Ms. Kerley learned that Ms. Courtner had been waiting for her mother for approximately one hour. Eventually, Ms. Kerley decided to drive to the victim’s residence, and Ms. Courtner contacted law enforcement to request that an officer be sent to check on her mother.
Ashe County Deputy Sheriff Rob Powers was dispatched to the victim’s residence in response to Ms. Courtner’s request. When Deputy Powers arrived at the residence at approximately 9:15 a.m., he observed Ms. Kerley knocking at the front door of the residence. A neighbor, Rita Wagoner Jordan, testified that she arrived at the scene at about the same time as Deputy Powers, having overheard the dispatch on her police radio scanner. After Deputy Powers began knocking, he eventually observed Devin inside the residence. Ms. Kerley and Deputy Powers were able to instruct Devin to open the front door, at which time he jumped into the arms of Ms. Jordan, appearing to be “hungry, tired, sleepy, [and] in shock.” Deputy Powers then entered the residence and found the victim’s body on the living room floor.
I. STATE’S INVESTIGATION
A subsequent investigation of the crime scene by law enforcement officials uncovered evidence that the murder may have occurred during the commission of a burglary and a sexual assault on the victim. There was also a substantial amount of blood discovered at the residence, which later testing indicated came from two individuals. Investigators performed a neighborhood canvas on 22 September 2003 and again on 24 September 2003. On both dates, an investigator went to the residence of Jim and Anna Lee Goss, defendant’s parents, where Christopher Goss resided at the time. On each occasion, defendant was interviewed and denied having left his parents’ house at any time during the night of the victim’s murder.
On 12 October 2003, Christopher Goss was booked on unrelated charges by the Jefferson Police Department. During this process, acting Police Chief David Larry Neaves observed a cut on defendant’s arm that caused him to suspect defendant may have been involved in the murder. The same evening, while defendant was still in custody, Chief Neaves and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Wilson questioned defendant about the murder. Defendant waived his Miranda rights and agreed to answer their questions. During the interrogation, Christopher Goss gave an account of his whereabouts on 21 and 22 September 2003 that was inconsistent with statements he had provided previously. However, defendant again denied any involvement in the murder and explained that the cut on his arm resulted from a piece of broken glass falling on him while he was cleaning the garage windows at his parents’ house.
On 24 October 2003, investigators served a warrant on Christopher Goss for the seizure of hair and blood samples. After defendant provided these samples and was transported back to the Ashe County Jail, defendant asked to speak with Chief Neaves and Special Agent Wilson and was taken to an interrogation room, where he waived his Miranda rights again. Special Agent Wilson then asked defendant what he wanted to share, and Christopher Goss immediately responded that he had “killed” the victim.
II. DEFENDANT’S CONFESSION
Thereafter, Christopher Goss provided a statement that contained, inter alia, the following facts: At about 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, 21 September 2003, defendant walked from his parents’ house to a 7-Eleven convenience store in West Jefferson to purchase beer, carrying with him a duffle bag. As defendant was returning from the store, the victim stopped her sport utility vehicle (SUV) and offered him a ride. Defendant accepted and got into the front passenger seat. Devin was also in the vehicle. While on their way, the victim asked defendant whether he knew her daughter, Denise, and he replied that he did. When they arrived at the victim’s residence, she asked defendant whether he wanted to return later that night, and he indicated that he would do so.
Defendant returned to his parents’ house, entering through the basement door, and consumed eight or nine of the beers he had purchased. At approximately 11:00 p.m., he returned to the victim’s residence. When he arrived, he knocked on the front door and was invited in by the victim, who led defendant to a couch in the living room. Devin was apparently asleep in a nearby bedroom at the time. Defendant and the victim then engaged in some casual conversation until the victim ultimately returned to the subject of her daughter Denise. She asked defendant whether he had fathered one of Denise’s children, and he denied the accusation. She further inquired about a party that defendant and Denise had attended years earlier and said Denise claimed that defendant had raped her at the party. Defendant stood up and stated his intention to leave, but the victim pointed at him and told him, “You’re not going nowhere.”
As the victim was pointing at defendant, she poked her finger into his forehead. Defendant reacted to this by striking her on the nose with the palm of his hand. The victim said she intended to call the police and rushed into her bedroom. Although she attempted to close the door behind her, defendant followed her, grabbed her hair, and threw her onto the bed. A struggle ensued on the bed as defendant hit the victim “a few times.” Defendant released the victim and she started to run, but he grabbed her and pushed her down. She then escaped his grasp, but again he was able to wrestle her down to the floor. Defendant inquired as to whether the victim still intended to call the police, and she replied, “Yes.” Although defendant pleaded with her to calm down, she cursed at him and told him he was “going to pay for this.” Defendant then struck the victim several times in the face and the back of her head until she stopped moving. He took a break to smoke a cigarette and think about what he was doing.
Defendant left the victim’s residence and returned to his parents’ house, where he collected a change of clothes, a hammer, and some duct tape, placing these items in his duffle bag. He walked back to the victim’s residence and pushed open the locked rear double doors with the intention “to make it look like a robbery or breaking and entering” and with the hope that the victim would forget who had assaulted her. He went into the kitchen and began to ransack it, but as he did so the victim raised her head and saw him. Defendant got on top of the victim and told her to calm down and not to call the police. When she indicated that she would not follow his instructions, defendant bound her hands behind her back using his duct tape and also bound her feet together. He then struck her repeatedly until she once again stopped moving.
Shortly after defendant resumed ransacking the house, the victim regained consciousness and started to scream. Defendant asked her to be quiet and to remember that she did not know who he was. The victim stated that defendant was “going to jail.” Defendant then walked to the kitchen and obtained a ten-inch long knife belonging to the victim. He returned to the victim, straddled her, and began to stab her in the back, “not kind of hard at first, maybe four times.” He paused a moment and then stabbed her five more times in the back, harder and deeper than before. The victim was silent and did not struggle.
Defendant at this point asked aloud, “What the hell am I doing?” He laid the knife on the victim’s back and returned to the kitchen, but when he heard her mumble something, he obtained a second, longer knife. Defendant straddled the victim again and stabbed her five to eight more times on the left side of her back. He then left the second knife in her body, stood up and saw that the victim was still breathing though she remained silent, and used another knife to slit her throat “to make sure she died.”
Defendant soon realized he had cut himself on the left forearm and that he was bleeding “quite a bit.” He removed his shirt and wrapped it around his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Then he went to the bedroom to check on Devin. While there, defendant observed he was still bleeding and that some of this blood had gotten onto the bed. After “just walking around thinking what to do,” defendant returned to the victim and observed that she was no longer breathing. He noted the time on a nearby clock was 3:45 a.m.
In his statement, defendant further described the actions he took after the murder. He first changed out of his clothes and put on the clothes he had obtained from his parents’ house, placing the old clothes in his duffle bag. He then walked back to his parents’ house, cleaned some blood from his chest and shoulder, and bandaged the cut on his left forearm. For the third time, he returned to the victim’s residence, again through the rear double doors, but this time he was wearing black leather gloves. He took several actions “just to make it look crazy,” including pulling down the victim’s pants and panties and pouring out a container of lotion onto her buttocks and legs. He placed an envelope on which he had written “[y]ou owe me money” on the victim’s buttocks and put a pair of eyeglasses and a small knife on top of the envelope. He wrote “I will kill” on the couch, “trying to make it look like somebody crazy did that to [the victim].”
Defendant took several additional actions to conceal his identity and to mislead investigators: He used a dampened towel to wipe down the handle of a knife and to wipe off what he thought was blood on the wall above the victim’s bed, used scissors to cut out bloody parts of the top sheet and mattress on the victim’s bed, went to a rear window on the ground floor and tried to pry it open with his hammer until the lock broke, cut the telephone line, and spread credit cards on top of the victim’s body. He placed the pieces of duct tape that he removed from the victim’s arms and legs and the pieces of bed sheet and mattress he had removed from the victim’s bed in his duffle bag. Defendant took seventeen dollars from the victim’s kitchen countertop and her vehicle keys and checked the house to make sure he did not forget anything. He then drove her SUV to the rear of a nearby grocery store in order to dispose of his hat and duffle bag. Returning to the victim’s residence, he parked the vehicle in the same place it was before and wiped it down to remove fingerprints.
Defendant went into the victim’s residence once more to retrieve his hammer and smoke a cigarette. He also went upstairs to check on Devin, returned the victim’s vehicle keys to the kitchen countertop, and turned off all the lights before leaving through the back door of the residence and walking back to his parents’ house, entering through the basement door to his room. He smoked another cigarette and reflected on what he had done, then went to sleep at approximately 5:00 a.m.
At the conclusion of his statement, defendant explained that he stabbed the victim because he could not calm her down or convince her not to call the police and that “[i]f she had agreed not to tell on [him], [he] would not have killed her.”
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
