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David Godwin North Carolina Death Row

David Godwin was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of Wendy Tamagne. According to court documents David Godwin would murder Wendy Tamagne and dismember her body before placing her in garbage bags. David Godwin would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List

David Godwin 2021 Information

Offender Number:	1142266
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Probation/Parole/Post Release Status:	INACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	EUROPEAN/N.AM./AUSTR
Birth Date:	03/22/1991
Age:	30
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

David Godwin More News

Jurors have sentenced David Godwin to death for beating, strangling, stabbing, killing and ultimately dismembering a Morehead City woman three years ago.

David Godwin, of Newport, was found guilty of first degree murder on April 12. He killed 37-year-old Wendy Tamagne, dismembered her body and stuffed it into trash bags in July 2016.

Authorities say Godwin fled on a Greyhound bus where he later showed up at Warrington Police Department in Oregon and said, “You guys are looking for me.” When they asked why, Godwin said, “I’m wanted for murder.”

Tamagne was recently divorced at the time of her death and living at Country Club Apartments, which is where her dismembered body was found on July 5, 2016. Police said Tamagne and Godwin knew each other and this was not a random act, but Godwin’s defense team states something different.

Prosecutors detailed a grisly scene throughout the murder trial while Godwin sat with his head down, staring at the table in front of him.

Tamagne’s mother, Jill Bergener, was the one who told authorities something was wrong the day after Tamagne’s murder. The mother and daughter spoke often and when Bergener was getting no response, each unanswered text sparked a growing concern. Bergener was among those in the courtroom as Godwin was sentenced.

“How am I ever going to forgive someone for murdering my daughter, said Bergener. “David you’re not sick, you’re a coward. You know it, I know it and God knows it.”

Bergener said she also told David Godwin’s mother she feels sorry for her and that they both lost children.

Godwin will be taken to the state penitentiary in Raleigh.

District Attorney Scott Thomas thanked the jury for their service.

“We are very appreciative of the jury for their work in this case,” Thomas said. “They have devoted nearly one month of their lives to this case from jury selection to the final sentence. They have had to listen to and observe gruesome evidence during this trial. They have used their good judgment and common sense to reach guilty verdicts and a sentence.

“My staff members who prosecuted this case spent months preparing this capital case for trial and nearly one month in court from jury selection through sentencing. They were well prepared and demonstrated their professional abilities on a very tough assignment. The Morehead City Police Department, State Bureau of Investigation, and the State Crime Lab worked diligently to solve this case and provide the evidence needed for a conviction.”

Thomas also extended condolences again to the Tamagne family.

“We committed to the family of Wendy that we would seek justice in her murder,” Thomas said. “In this case, we decided to seek the death penalty due to the aggravating factors present. Every murder is cruel by its very nature, but the death in this case was especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel. Our prayers continue to be with Wendy’s family and friends as they move forward after this first-degree murder conviction and sentence.”

https://wcti12.com/news/local/deliberations-finish-jury-begins-discussion-of-sentencing-for-david-godwin

Brady Mikel North Carolina Death Row

Brady Mikel was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for four murders during an attempted prison escape. According to court documents Brady Mikel would murder four North Carolina prison worker during an escape from Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City. Brady Mikel has been moved to a Federal Prison, U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Kentucky, for safety concerns and will be transferred back when his execution is scheduled.

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List

Brady Mikel 2021 Information

Offender Number:	1403339
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	EUROPEAN/N.AM./AUSTR
Birth Date:	03/11/1989
Age:	32
Current Location:	OUT OF STATE

Brady Mikel More News

Mikel Brady was sentenced to death Monday just a little over two years after a planned escape from a North Carolina prison ended in four people’s brutal deaths.

Brady, 30, will become the 143rd person waiting to die on death row in North Carolina. The state has not carried out an execution since 2006.

Surrounded by six police officers, Brady remained quiet and stoic as he learned of his death sentence. Occasionally, he looked over at the jurors.

They deliberated for an hour and five minutes.

Their decision Monday came about a week after they deliberated for just 35 minutes to find him guilty of first-degree murder and other charges related to an escape he planned from Pasquotank Correctional Institution north of Elizabeth City on Oct. 12, 2017.

Brady testified last week to planning the escape, describing how he cobbled together backpacks and supplies from his job in the prison’s sewing plant. Three other inmates — Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman — have been charged and are awaiting trial.

Brady was in custody at Pasquotank for shooting a North Carolina highway patrolman in 2013. The trooper, Michael Potts, survived.

It is the deadliest prison escape attempt in the state’s history. District Attorney Andrew Womble had been seeking the death penalty.

In closing arguments Monday, Womble described Brady — a native of Vermont — as taking advantage of a position of trust and confidence at Pasquotank. He described Brady’s victims as obstacles to his ultimate goal of freedom.

“They were things to get past,” Womble said, a blue screen illuminating the words “State V Mikel Brady” behind him.

Jurors were showed photos of each victim — a “before Brady” photo of them alive and then an “after Brady” photo of them lying on the prison floor, blood surrounding their bodies.

If the jury chose life in prison, Womble contended, “it will be open season on corrections officers in this state.”

“I understand he’s got one life,” Womble said, “but he took four.”

Brady’s lawyers, Thomas Manning and Jack Warmack, reminded the jury of Brady’s tumultuous childhood. How he was born to a teenage mother and an abusive father. How he suffered from developmental issues from a young age, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. How even after he was given medications, his father did not want Brady to take them.

“As the twig is bent, so goes the tree,” Manning said, quoting a poem to the jurors.

Manning focused on the responsibility of the Department of Corrections. He told jurors they should factor in how the prison, tasked with controlling prisoners and keeping its workers safe, could allow an inmate like Brady to concoct a plan for months to get out.

“It was absolutely easy for him to implement the plan and prepare the plan,” Manning said. “No one was looking.”

He added later: “The blame does not stop with Mikel Brady and his co-defendants.”

Clinton Skinner, the older brother of Veronica Darden, a Pasquotank sewing plant manager who died the day Brady tried escaping, said immediately after hearing the sentence he was “ecstatic.”

“I’m glad it was quick,” Skinner said of the jury’s ruling. “The evidence was too apparent.”

He said it wasn’t difficult to watch the proceedings, including vivid descriptions of how his sister died. His anger, he said, has already subsided and he had to forgive Brady.

Skinner wants justice but said he still doesn’t feel it. With the death sentence, Brady would be put to death by lethal injection versus the pain Skinner’s sister went through the day she died.

“That’s the extent of his pain,” Skinner said.

There are 142 people on death row in North Carolina, according to the state’s Department of Public Safety. Only four other states — Pennsylvania, Alabama, Texas and Florida — have more people on death row, according to the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Executions in North Carolina have been stalled by lawsuits over racial bias and lethal injection drugs, Gretchen Engel, executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, has told The Pilot.

Six capital cases await a hearing before the state’s Supreme Court to decide if race played a role in jury selection. A study showed the state’s prosecutors struck black jurors at roughly double the rate of others, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Womble told reporters he was pleased with Monday’s outcome, and relieved they were able to get some justice for the families involved.

Brady will be transferred to Central Prison, which is located in Raleigh, Womble said.

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/crime/vp-nw-sentencing-prison-break-attempt-20191028-zvzmcpmmlzclznmz2upecxdyem-story.html

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List

North Carolina Death Row for men is located at the Central Prison. North Carolina Death Row for women is located at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women, North Carolina primary method of execution is lethal injection

Outgoing Governor commutes fifteen North Carolina death row inmates to life in prison – December 31 2024

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – Women

Blanche Taylor Moore

Carlette Parker

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – A

Scott Allen

Antwan Anthony

William Anthony

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – B

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – C

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – D

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – E

Keith East

Terrence Elliott

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – F

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – G

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – H

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – I

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – J

James Jaynes

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – K

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – L

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – M

Mario McNeill

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – N

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – O

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – P

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – Q

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – R

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – S

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – T

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – U

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – V

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – W

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – X

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – Y

North Carolina Death Row Inmate List – Z

https://www.ncdps.gov/adult-corrections/prisons/death-penalty/death-row-roster

North Carolina Death Row Inmates Commuted To Life In Prison

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, on his last day in office Tuesday, commuted the death sentences of 15 inmates to life in prison without parole.

One of the prisoners receiving clemency was convicted murderer Hasson Bacote, a Black man who had challenged his sentence under the Racial Justice Act of 2009, a groundbreaking state law that allows condemned inmates to seek resentencing if they can show racial bias played a role in their cases.

The reprieves came as Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons Jr. was considering the case of Bacote, who was sentenced to death in 2009 by 10 white and two Black jurors.

“These reviews are among the most difficult decisions a Governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence that the state can impose,” Cooper said in a statement. “After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.”

While Cooper insisted that “no single factor was determinative in the decision on any one case,” among the factors considered were “potential influence of race, such as the race of the defendant and victim, composition of the jury pool and the final jury.”

Death penalty opponents had been urging Cooper to commute the sentences of all 136 prisoners currently on death row in North Carolina. While the Democratic governor stopped short of that, no prisoner has been executed by the state since 2006.

Cooper’s move was applauded by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and others working to overturn the death penalty.

“This decision is a historic step towards ending the death penalty in North Carolina,” Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project said in a statement.

The other inmates whose sentences were commuted are:

Iziah Barden, 67, convicted in Sampson County in 1999; Nathan Bowie, 53, convicted in Catawba County in 1993; Rayford Burke, 66, convicted in Iredell County in 1993; Elrico Fowler, 49, convicted in Mecklenburg County in 1997; Cerron Hooks, 46, convicted in Forsyth County in 2000; Guy LeGrande, 65, convicted in Stanly County in 1996; James Little, 38, convicted in Forsyth County in 2008; Robbie Locklear, 52, convicted in Robeson County in 1996; Lawrence Peterson, 55, convicted in Richmond County in 1996; William Robinson, 41, convicted in Stanly County in 2011; Christopher Roseboro, 60, convicted in Gaston County in 1997; Darrell Strickland, 66, convicted in Union County in 1995; Timothy White, 47, convicted in Forsyth County in 2000; Vincent Wooten, 52, convicted in Pitt County in 1994.

Sermons began reviewing the Bacote case in February, after the ACLU and other groups filed a challenge on behalf of the condemned man from Johnston County.

Now 38, Bacote has been held in a Raleigh prison as death sentences in North Carolina remain on hold, in part, due to legal disputes and difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.

The law that Bacote used to challenge his sentence was passed in 2009. But in 2013, then-Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, repealed the law, arguing that it “created a judicial loophole to avoid the death penalty and not a path to justice.”

But the state Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in favor of many of the inmates, allowing those who, like Bacote, had already filed challenges in their cases, to move ahead.

At the time, nearly every person on death row, including both Black and white prisoners, filed for reviews under the Racial Justice Act, according to The Associated Press.

During Bacote’s two-week trial court hearing, several historians, social scientists, statisticians and others testified that the jury selection process in Johnston County, a majority-white suburban area near Raleigh that prominently displayed Ku Klux Klan billboards during the Jim Crow era, had long been infected by racism.

In court filings, Bacote’s lawyers suggested that local prosecutors at the time of his trial were “nearly two times more likely to exclude people of color from jury service than to exclude whites.” In Bacote’s case, prosecutors chose to strike prospective Black jurors from the jury pool at more than three times the rate of prospective white jurors, the lawyers argued.

Bacote’s legal team also provided evidence that indicated that in Johnston County, the death penalty was 1 ½ times more likely to be sought and imposed on a Black defendant and two times more likely “in cases with minority defendants.”

The office of North Carolina’s then-attorney general, Josh Stein, had sought to delay Bacote’s hearing. They argued in a court filing that the claims made by Bacote’s lawyers were based, in part, on a Michigan State University study that the North Carolina Supreme Court had already found last year to be “unreliable and fatally flawed.”

While the AG’s office said in its court filing that racial bias in jury selection is “abhorrent,” the office added that a “claim of racial discrimination cannot be presumed based on the mere assertion of a defendant; it must be proved.”

Stein, a Democrat, is now the governor-elect of North Carolina.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/north-carolina-gov-cooper-commutes-sentences-15-death-row-inmates-rcna167556

Alejandro Umana Federal Death Row

Alejandro Umana was sentenced to death by the Federal Government for the murders of two brother in North Carolina. According to court documents Alejandro Umana would walk into a crowded restaurant and fatally shoot two brothers, Ruben and Manuel Salinas, for he believed they had insulted his gang. Alejandro Umana was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. As of 2021 he remains on Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Alejandro Umana 2021 Information

Register Number: 23077-058
Age:	36
Race:	White
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Alejandro Umana More News

Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umaña shot and killed two brothers, Ruben and Manuel Salinas, at point-blank range in a restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina, because Umaña perceived that the brothers had insulted Umaña’s gang, Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS–13. A jury convicted Umaña of all counts for which he was charged, including two counts charging him with murder in aid of racketeering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), and two counts charging him with committing murder while using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) and (j)(1). The convictions on those charges subjected Umaña to a maximum sentence of death.

During the sentence selection phase of Umaña’s trial, the government introduced evidence implicating Umaña in several Los Angeles shootings: one on Fairfax Street on July 27, 2005, where two persons were shot and killed, and one in Lemon Grove Park on September 28, 2005, where a group of four persons were shot at and one was killed and two were injured.

On the occasion of the Fairfax Street murders, Umaña was in the passenger seat of a car with several other MS–13 members. The car pulled up alongside two males walking down the street, and the two groups began flashing gang signs at one another. The two males on the street were graffiti artists, or “taggers,” and they made hand gestures that were perceived as challenging MS–13. Some or all of Umaña’s group exited the car to confront the taggers. There were conflicting accounts about what happened next. Umaña’s fellow MS–13 members claimed that Umaña shot the two taggers, but two civilian eye witnesses claimed that the driver of the car shot them.

On the occasion of the Lemon Grove Park murder, two men approached a group of four who had just finished playing basketball and were sitting on bleachers in the park. Without a word, the two men took out guns and opened fire on the group. One of the four basketball players was killed, while two others were wounded. The fourth, Freddie Gonzalez, who was apparently the target of the attack, escaped uninjured. Several pieces of evidence linked Umaña to this murder. First, Gonzalez identified Umaña in a photo lineup and confirmed the identification in court, although he admitted to some uncertainty. Also, Umaña admitted to driving the shooters to the basketball court, although he denied being a shooter himself. Finally, ballistics matched the gun used in the Fairfax Street murders with the gun used in the Lemon Grove Park murder, and there was no evidence that anyone but Umaña was present at both crime scenes.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1664329.html

Aquilia Barnette Federal Death Row

Aquilia Barnette was convicted of two murders and sentenced to death by the Federal Government. According to court documents Aquilia Barnette would firebomb his ex girlfriends apartment in Virginia which send her to live with her mother in North Carolina. Aquilia Barnette armed with a shotgun would carjack a vehicle in North Carolina and murder the driver. He would then drive to his ex girlfriends mother home where he shot off the lock. The ex girlfriend was able to flee the house and was running down the street when Aquilia Barnette would shoot and kill her. Aquilia Barnette would be convicted of both murders and sent to Federal Death Row

Federal Death Row Inmate List

Aquilia Barnette 2021 Information

Register Number: 12599-058
Age:	47
Race:	Black
Sex:	Male
Located at: Terre Haute USP
Release Date: DEATH SENT

Aquilia Barnette More News

A man accused of firebombing his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and later gunning her down on a Roanoke street will be prosecuted in North Carolina – where he could face a federal death sentence for those and related crimes.

Aquilia Barnette, 23, was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Charlotte on charges of killing Robin Williams last June 22 outside her mother’s home on Loudon Avenue Northwest.

Aquilia Barnette also is accused of killing a man in Charlotte hours earlier and stealing his car so he could drive to Roanoke and kill Williams.

By taking the unusual step of combining two killings in separate states into one case, U.S. prosecutors may be able to do what Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Donald Caldwell could not – seek a death sentence.

“As crazy as it may seem in this case, we could not bring a capital murder charge under Virginia law,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell has agreed to withdraw murder and arson charges against Barnette in Roanoke so he can face similar charges in Charlotte, where Aquilia Barnette is accused of killing Donald Lee Allen during a carjacking.

An 11-count indictment returned Tuesday also charges Barnette with violating the federal Violence Against Women Act, which makes crossing a state line to assault a spouse or domestic partner a federal offense.

Robert Conrad, the chief criminal assistant U.S. attorney in Charlotte, declined to say whether prosecutors will seek the death sentence for Aquilia Barnette. To do so, they would have to get approval from the U.S. Justice Department.

Members of Williams’ family have agreed to the federal prosecution, which Caldwell said will expedite a case that would have taken months to prosecute in separate states.

“I think the major advantage to this is that the entire story can be told in one courtroom,” he said. “This is as cold and brutal a set of circumstances as I’ve seen in the time that I’ve been a prosecutor.”

This is what happened, according to the indictment and police accounts:

On the morning of April 30, Williams was awakened by smoke in her Keswick Street Northeast apartment. When she and a friend looked outside, they saw that her friend’s car windows had been smashed and the car set on fire.

They told police they saw a man – whom they identified as Barnette – throw an object through the apartment window. It was a firebomb, and it ignited the couch. As fire spread through the apartment, Williams escaped by climbing out of a window. She suffered cuts and burns.

Williams, 23, went to stay with her mother. But she continued to live in fear, friends and relatives have said, because Aquilia Barnette remained at large on an arson charge.

Barnette went back to Charlotte, where he lived at the time. He is accused of buying a shotgun from a pawn shop May21. Barnette, who was prohibited from owning a gun as a convicted felon, gave a false name to the shop owner and later sawed the barrel off the gun, another violation of federal law, according to the indictment.

Early on the morning of June 22, Donald Allen was waiting for a traffic light to turn green near Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

A man with a shotgun walked up to Allen’s Honda Prelude, ordered him out and shot him to death. That man was Barnette, the indictment alleges.

As Allen lay dead in a ditch, authorities say, Barnette took his car and drove to Roanoke.

Several hours later, about 7 a.m., the lock on the back door of the house where Williams was staying was blown off by a shotgun blast.

Williams fled the house, but Aquilia Barnette chased her down and caught her near Ninth Street and Loudon Avenue. Barnette is accused of shooting Williams in the chest as he tried to force her back into the home.

Authorities say Barnette fled to Charlotte a second time, where he was arrested June 25 at his mother’s home. He has been held since then in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Jail.

While authorities have not commented on a motive, friends and relatives have said Barnette was angry at Williams for breaking off their relationship. When Williams refused to talk to Barnette about patching things up, he told her to “watch out,” police have said.

After her apartment was firebombed, Williams found love letters she previously had written to Barnette taped to her car. Barnette had scrawled messages on the letters, including one that said, “It didn’t have to be this way,” Williams’ mother has said.

The fact that Barnette avoided arrest for nearly two months after Williams’ apartment was set on fire raised questions about communications between the Charlotte and Roanoke police. Roanoke police said that immediately after the firebombing, they sent several Teletypes to Charlotte police alerting them to be on the lookout for Barnette.

Charlotte police said they did not receive all of the Teletypes. And when they later checked an address where Barnette was believed to be, Charlotte police were unable to find it and mistakenly told Roanoke authorities that it was invalid.

Barnette’s indictments mark the second time that the Violence Against Women Act has been used in Western Virginia since the federal law was passed in 1994.

While some have argued that the act is unconstitutional when used in civil cases – a federal judge in Roanoke dismissed a lawsuit that cited the law in accusing two Virginia Tech football players of rape – it has been used successfully in criminal prosecutions.

The first person prosecuted under the law was a West Virginia man who beat his wife and threw her in the trunk of his car. He drove around two states drunk while she lapsed into a permanent coma. He was sentenced to life in prison.

https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1997/rt9702/970205/02050092.htm