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Carl Moseley North Carolina Death Row

Carl Moseley was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Carl Moseley would meet the victim at a bar and the two would leave together. Soon after they left Carl Moseley would sexually assault and murder the woman. Carl Moseley would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Carl Moseley 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0294214
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	10/22/1965
Age:	56
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

Carl Moseley More News

Deborah Henley was a 38-year-old petite woman with a speech impediment who lived with her mother in the Old Town section of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On Thursday evening, July 25, 1991, Henley’s sister dropped her off at the SRO Club, a local dance club in Winston-Salem. According to her mother, Henley had approximately eight dollars with her when she left for the club.

Appellant Carl Moseley and two of his friends, Travis Key and Tony Casstevens, also frequented the SRO Club and were there that evening. Moseley and Key had spent most of the day together and had thoroughly washed Key’s car, inside and out. Moseley then borrowed Key’s car to go home and get ready to go to the club. Key later rode to the club with another friend, where he met Moseley and Casstevens about 9:00 p.m.

When the club closed at approximately 1:30 a.m., Henley went outside and asked Duane Shouse for a ride home, but he was unable to help her. An employee of the club offered to let Henley use the telephone, but Henley declined. According to several witnesses, Henley was instead telling patrons that she would pay $50 for a ride home. Carl Moseley, Key, and Casstevens were also outside the club at the time. Key saw Henley talking to Shouse and, later, to Moseley. A few minutes later, Moseley approached Key and asked to borrow Key’s car to take Henley home. Moseley told Key that Henley had offered to pay him $50 for the ride and that he would split the money with Key. Key initially resisted, but finally agreed. Key and Casstevens saw Henley get into Key’s car with Moseley and drive away at approximately 1:40 a.m. Henley never arrived home.

Key and Casstevens stayed behind at the club to wait for Moseley to return with Key’s vehicle. Based upon where Moseley said Henley lived, they expected Moseley to return in approximately 15 to 30 minutes. When Carl Moseley did not return for more than an hour, the two men left the club in Casstevens’ vehicle. As they were driving, they saw Moseley coming towards them in Key’s vehicle. Moseley was alone. Both vehicles pulled over and the men got out. When Key asked Moseley where he had been, Moseley told the men that “the damn bitch didn’t live where she said she did.” J.A. 883. Carl Moseley told the men that she lived on the other side of King, North Carolina, presumably to explain his delay. That statement was untrue, but even if it had been true, the additional distance did not explain the inordinate delay in Moseley’s return. In addition, Moseley told the men that Henley did not have any money. A law enforcement officer who happened by the area witnessed the three men standing beside the road and briefly stopped to ask if there was a problem. After taking Moseley home, Key returned to his home and went to bed. The next morning, Key noticed a small amount of dirt and weeds on the floorboard of the driver’s side of his vehicle. As noted previously, Key’s car had been thoroughly washed just before Moseley drove it to the SRO Club the previous evening.

On Friday evening, Tommy Beroth, a property owner in a rural area of Forsyth County, discovered Henley’s body partially hidden under cut corn stalks in his cornfield. The cornfield was approximately five miles and a nine-minute drive from the SRO Club and within one mile of Henley’s home. There was testimony that Moseley had travelled the roads near the cornfield in the past and, therefore, was presumably familiar with them. Henley was completely naked, and her clothing was never found. She had been brutally beaten about the head, face, neck, chest, and abdomen, sexually assaulted with a blunt instrument, stabbed twelve times in the chest, tortured by means of two long incisions on her chest and two more across her neck, and manually strangled. A single dark hair was found underneath one of her fingernails. There was no spermatozoa or semen detected.

The following day, Carl Moseley called both Casstevens and Key and asked them not to tell anyone that he had been at the SRO Club on Thursday night because he was on probation and was not supposed to be drinking alcohol in such environments. Key and Casstevens, however, had been to clubs with Moseley before and Moseley had never previously made such a request. When Casstevens pointed out to Moseley that his name would be on the sign-in sheets at the SRO Club, Moseley told Casstevens that he had gone to Nancy Bolt’s house that evening and that she would be his alibi.¹

Aware by that time of rumors that a woman had disappeared from the SRO Club on Thursday night, Casstevens and Key contacted the police. The police obtained search warrants and retrieved the clothing that Moseley was wearing that evening at the SRO Club, as well as two pocket-knives among his possessions. Traces of blood were present on Moseley’s boots, shirt, and jeans, indicating secondary transfer or spattering, but the quantities were insufficient to determine the origin. A pathologist testified that the size and shape of the wounds inflicted on Henley were consistent with the two knives seized by authorities. Although there was conflicting testimony from Moseley’s soil expert, the state’s soil analyst found the soil on Moseley’s boots to be consistent with soil samples taken from the crime scene.

During the trial, the prosecution was allowed to present evidence of Moseley’s alleged involvement in the similar rape and murder of Dorothy Woods Johnson, whose body was found in adjoining Stokes County, North Carolina, approximately three months before Henley was murdered.

Dorothy Johnson was also last seen alive at the SRO Club. She was 35 years old, petite, and also suffered from a speech impediment. On the evening of April 12, 1991, she drove to the SRO Club where she met her friend Sherry Hoss and Hoss’s then-boyfriend, Dexter Mabe. During the evening, two witnesses at the club saw Johnson dancing and talking with Carl Moseley, whose name appeared on the SRO Club’s sign-in sheets. Moseley was wearing a cowboy hat and dark jeans. Hoss and Mabe left the club around 11:00 p.m. and walked to a nearby motel where they stayed for the remainder of the night. Johnson was still at the SRO Club when they left.

Johnson’s nude body was later found in a rural area called Friendship Forest. She had multiple blunt force injuries to her head, neck, chest, abdomen, and body, and had been sexually assaulted. Spermatozoa and semen were present on vaginal and rectal smears. The semen was estimated to have been deposited within twelve hours of Johnson’s death. Johnson had a single black hair underneath one of her fingernails. Johnson’s car and her purse were left at the SRO Club. Pam James, a former girlfriend of Moseley, testified that she and Moseley would sometimes drive to the Friendship Forest area, near where Johnson’s body was found, to have sexual relations. A resident of the area, and acquaintance of Moseley and James, testified that Moseley had once questioned her and her husband about their property and remarked that it would be a good place to leave a body because it would take days before it would be found.

During the initial investigation of Johnson’s murder, law enforcement identified Dexter Mabe, Daniel Cannaday, and several other men as possible suspects. Mabe had dark hair, was dating Hoss at the time of the murder, was present at the SRO Club that night, and had been involved in disagreements with Johnson about his relationship with Hoss in the past. Cannaday was Johnson’s former boyfriend and was known to have been possessive and jealous of Johnson before he ended his relationship with her. However, both men were ultimately eliminated as suspects. DNA samples obtained from both men did not match the DNA samples retrieved from Johnson’s body and each man had provided an alibi for the evening.

The DNA profile from semen found in Johnson did, however, match Moseley’s DNA profile, which was obtained after Key and Casstevens alerted authorities that Henley had left the SRO Club with Moseley on the night Henley was murdered. As noted previously, Carl Moseley was seen dancing and talking to Johnson on the night of Johnson’s murder. According to Michael Budzynski, of the DNA Unit of the State Bureau of Investigation, the chance that Moseley was not the donor of the semen found in Johnson was approximately one in 274 million.

There were striking and obvious similarities between the murders of Johnson and Henley, indicating a common killer. Johnson and Henley were both last seen alive at or leaving the SRO Club. Henley was with Moseley when she left the SRO Club and Johnson was seen in the company of Moseley near the time of her disappearance. The women were of similar age and had small physical builds. Henley was 38 years old, approximately 5′4″ tall, and weighed approximately 105 pounds. Johnson was 35 years old, approximately 5′6″ tall, and weighed approximately 82 pounds. And, both women suffered from speech impediments.

The nature and extent of the victims’ injuries and the causes of their deaths were also similar. As discussed in more detail below, both women sustained multiple blunt force injuries to their head, neck, chest, abdomen, and body, and had defensive injuries. Both women had also been sexually assaulted with a foreign object, tortured, and strangled. In addition, both women were found completely naked in rural areas where Moseley was known to have traveled. Both women had dirt around their fingernails, both were barefoot, and both had ground-in dirt on the soles of their feet. An FBI witness testified that the signature to each crime was overkill-the murderer inflicted far more injuries to the victims than necessary to cause death and employed multiple means of death, any one of which would have been alone sufficient.

The evidence regarding Johnson’s murder was admitted in the Henley murder trial pursuant to Rule 404(b) to show identity of the perpetrator, the existence of a similar modus operandi, intent, and design. See N.C. Gen.Stat. § 8C-1, Rule 404(b) (“Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts ․ may ․ be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake, entrapment or accident.”).² Clearly, there was evidence from which the jury could find that the murders were committed by the same person. Moseley offered no evidence that excluded him as the murderer of either woman, arguing primarily that the DNA evidence was not reliable and that, even if it was, it only proved that Moseley had sexual relations with Johnson in the hours immediately prior to her death. He argued that the killer was an unknown dark-haired man.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-4th-circuit/1123578.html

Eddie Robinson North Carolina Death Row

Eddie Robinson was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for a triple murder in 1984. According to court documents Eddie Robinson was hired to kill James Elwell Worley by his wife Shelia Worley. After Eddie Robinson would murder Worley he would later murder Shelia Worley and her four year old daughter as Worley failed to pay him.

Eddie Robinson partner Elton McLaughlin would also be convicted of the triple murders. Both men would be convicted and sentenced to death. Elton McLaughlin would be taken off of death row in 2006 due to a mental impairment

Eddie Robinson 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0347839
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	01/20/1948
Age:	73
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

Eddie Robinson More News

On 26 March 1984 at approximately 2:00 a.m., Dan Alford, a volunteer firefighter who lived in the White’s Creek Community of Bladen County, noticed a fire down the highway from his residence. Upon investigation, he found that the interior of a small car, which was parked on the right shoulder of the highway, was in flames. Alford left and immediately returned with a fire truck and another volunteer.

After the two men extinguished the flames, they found a badly burned body in the passenger area of the car. The resulting autopsy, conducted at the Office of the Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill, revealed that James Worley had been shot twice in the left chest and was dead at the time of the fire. Forensic testing later established that clothing scraps found in the car contained gasoline.

Early on the morning of 30 April 1984, Kent Allen, while driving towards White’s Creek in the Lisban Community, noticed an automobile sitting off the road at the bridge with the rear end of the car on the creek bank and the front tires in the water. Allen found a woman’s body floating faceup in the creek beside the car and a small child in diapers standing in the front seat of the car looking at the body and crying for her mother. After law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, the body of a young girl was found floating in the creek downstream from the vehicle. Autopsies were conducted at the Chief Medical Examiner’s office in Chapel Hill, and each autopsy indicated death by drowning secondary to blunt trauma of the head.

Following the arrest of Elton McLaughlin, authorities arrested defendant on 9 May 1984. On 10 May 1984, Eddie Robinson, after waiving his Miranda rights, gave a statement describing the murder of James Worley. Eddie Robinson indicated he first met McLaughlin in March of 1984 in a pool hall in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. McLaughlin told defendant he had been hired by a woman to kill her husband and needed defendant to assist him. McLaughlin later told defendant he would receive between fifteen hundred and three thousand dollars for his participation in the murder.

The two men first attempted to kill James Worley on the Sunday after they met. McLaughlin had a .22 rifle, a plastic jug of gasoline, and a metal pipe. He told defendant the gasoline was to set Worley’s car on fire. After driving to Worley’s residence in New Town, they parked on a dirt road and walked towards the house. The plan was aborted when an automobile pulled up across the street from Worley’s house and the driver sat in the car for several minutes with the lights on.

The next Sunday night, the two again drove to Worley’s home but did not stop because McLaughlin decided that something was wrong. The following Saturday, the two men met at McLaughlin’s trailer and discussed a revised plan. McLaughlin told defendant he had spoken with the victim’s wife and that she would leave the back door of the house open the next evening.

On Sunday, 26 March 1984, McLaughlin and defendant drove to Worley’s home at approximately 11:30 p.m. After parking along the dirt road, they walked towards the house and entered through the back door. Upon locating the bedroom, McLaughlin fired two shots into Worley’s chest; he tried to fire again but *200 the rifle jammed. The victim’s wife got out of bed and waited in the hallway while McLaughlin and defendant removed the body and placed it in the passenger side of Worley’s Volkswagen. Following McLaughlin, defendant drove the Volkswagen to the Lisban area where they doused the vehicle with gasoline and ignited it.

Defendant also described the events leading up to and including the murders of Denise Worley and Psoma Baggett. Defendant stated that late in April 1984, McLaughlin told him the victim’s wife had been talking to the authorities and that they needed to kill her. After initially telling the officers that Denise Worley was already dead when he arrived at McLaughlin’s trailer on 29 April 1984, defendant admitted he actually hid in a bedroom of the trailer and waited for Denise Worley to arrive at McLaughlin’s trailer.

At some point, McLaughlin showed defendant a metal pipe and told him that, once the lights were turned out, defendant was to kill Denise using the pipe. When the lights went out, defendant found McLaughlin and Denise standing in the hallway kissing. Defendant hit her twice in the back of the head with the pipe and then dragged her to the bathroom where he held her head underwater in the bathtub for five to ten minutes. After cleaning up the blood, the two men placed the body in the trunk of her own car.

They awakened her two children, Alicia and Psoma, who were asleep in the living room, and drove to a field approximately a half mile from White’s Creek bridge. Having decided to kill Psoma because she was old enough to identify them, McLaughlin struck the child twice from behind with a pipe and then placed her body in the front seat of her mother’s car. They moved Denise’s body from the trunk and placed it beside Psoma. Psoma’s feet continued to move so McLaughlin handed defendant the pipe and instructed him to hit her yet a third time. The baby Alicia, was placed unharmed in the car with the bodies of her mother and sister. Defendant then drove the automobile to the edge of the embankment near the bridge and let it roll into the creek. Defendant pulled Denise Worley’s body out of the car and threw Psoma out of the car into the water.

The State presented the physical evidence and then rested its case after introducing State’s Exhibit No. 42, a certified copy of the judgment entered in Colorado on 28 October 1969 wherein defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment upon his plea of guilty to the charge of first-degree murder.[1]

On defendant’s behalf, Dr. Patricio Lara, a psychiatrist at Dorothea Dix, testified he had examined defendant in 1984 pursuant to a court order. Relying on several personal interviews, a previous psychiatric report compiled in Colorado, medical records, school records, and psychological tests, Dr. Lara testified defendant had the equivalent of a seventh grade education and an IQ of 82, which is in the low average or dull normal range of intelligence.

When defendant was two years old, his mother left him in the care of relatives; he never knew his father. Dr. Lara noted that the psychological effect of separating a young child from its mother at such a young age is particularly damaging. Testing revealed that defendant suffered from a personality disorder characterized by aggressive action. Generally, personality disorders may be described as persistent maladaptive patterns of behavior substantially affecting the way the individual deals with stress and interacts with other people.

Detective Little testified that defendant had been very cooperative with investigating authorities and that he was not given a deal for testifying in the murder trial of Elton McLaughlin. The parties stipulated that defendant testified truthfully on behalf of the State in McLaughlin’s prosecution.

With respect to the murders of Denise Worley and Psoma Baggett, three aggravating circumstances were submitted to the jury: (i) defendant was previously convicted of a felony involving the use of violence to the person, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3); (ii) the murder was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(4); and (iii) the murder *201 was part of a course of conduct in which defendant engaged and which included the commission of other crimes of violence against other persons, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(11). The jury found the existence of all three circumstances in these two murders.

https://law.justia.com/cases/north-carolina/supreme-court/1994/261a92-0.html

Michael Reeves North Carolina Death Row

Michael Reeves was sentenced to death for the sexual assault and murder of a woman in North Carolina. According to court documents Michael Reeves would sexually assault and murder the woman after kidnapping her from the store she worked at. Michael Reeves would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Michael Reeves 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0339314
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Probation/Parole/Post Release Status:	INACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	07/22/1962
Age:	59
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

Michael Reeves More News

On a wet July night in 1989, 11-year-old Desiree Shumate and her mother’s boyfriend answered the door to their Wolf Avenue home in Marion.

It was the police.

They wanted to know if anyone had seen Desiree’s mother that night.

The now-41-year-old Desiree Trent remembers telling the officers that her mother was at work.

“They said, ‘that’s the problem. We’ve had several calls. The store’s unattended and your mom’s not present.’ “

Trent said she remembers grabbing her hair and going to the floor.

“I knew in my heart of hearts that I was never going to see my mom again.”

A few hours later, investigators found her mother’s body in a ditch by a service road near the Adwolf Food Center. The 47-year-old clerk had been raped and stabbed in the throat, in both kidneys and the breasts.

To spare the pre-teen Desiree the traumatic details, family members initially told her that Betty Shumate had been shot that night – July 5, 1989.

It wasn’t until weeks later that Desiree would find out what really happened. She wouldn’t know of the full extent of the attack on her mother until she reached adulthood.

“I asked for a copy of my mom’s autopsy when I turned of age and a lot of what my mom went through, I didn’t even know until then.”

At the time of Betty Shumate’s slaying, investigators told the Smyth County News & Messenger that rumors of her estranged husband’s involvement were untrue. A month later, though, the then-53-year-old Mack Shumate, a former Smyth County deputy, was charged with capital murder and held at the Smyth County Jail.

At the time, all the evidence pointed to Mack Shumate, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans. Evans had become the county’s prosecutor less than two years prior.

“We had testimony from a clerk that three days before, Mack was complaining to her that Betty had taken everything he had and wasn’t getting another red cent from him,” Evans said in a recent interview.

Mack was behind about $10,000 in support payments to his ex-wife and had previously been sentenced to two 90-day jail terms that were on appeal. With Betty out of the way, the support and the jail sentences would disappear.

Evans said the prosecution also had evidence and an admission from Mack that he had threatened to kill Betty.

With her mother dead and her father in jail, Desiree moved to South Carolina to stay with her half-sister.

“I was 11 years old and my mother was ripped away from me and so was my father for a long time,” she said. “For somebody who pretty much grew up in what I would say was a bubble, that was a rude awakening. I can remember having to go and see my dad in jail and that was awful, having to visit him through that little bitty window. He was in there for 102 days. He spent 57 of those days in a five-by-seven room in solitary confinement.”

During one visit in particular, Desiree said Mack became especially emotional.

“My dad started crying and he said, ‘Desi, as bad as your mom and I fought, I would have never taken her from you.’ And from that moment on, I knew without a doubt that he didn’t do it.”

Mack Shumate’s trial was scheduled to start Dec. 13, 1989, but his court-appointed attorney, Danny Lowe, and a private investigator had other plans.

Just weeks before trial, Lowe met with prosecutors and investigators.

“I told the prosecution that I was coming out with subpoenas for everyone I needed to prove that Michael McGay Reeves was possibly the one who did this (murder and abduct Betty Shumate),” Lowe told the News & Messenger in 1989.

Michael Reeves then 27 years old, had already been charged with the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a U.S. Forestry Service employee. The employee had been attacked in a similar manner a little more than a month before Mack Shumate’s release. Around the same time, Michael Reeves, a Smyth County native, had also been charged with the abduction and sodomy of another Marion woman.

Michael Reeves would later be convicted and sentenced to two life sentences, plus 100 years in the first case and 10 years on the second.

Before his arrest on those charges, Michael Reeves already had a documented history of violence against women. In March 1988, he was released from a North Carolina prison after pulling three years of a five-year sentence on a rape conviction. According to news reports in that area, both Reeves and the female victim were stationed at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in Craven County, North Carolina.

Lowe said in the 1989 interview that the stab wounds on Betty Shumate and those on the Forestry Service employee were identical.

The defense attorney said the case against Mack Shumate started to unravel when Robert Picklesimer, a private investigator, started looking into it.

By the time Betty was killed, Picklesimer already suspected Reeves in the slaying of Barbara Jean Hagy earlier that year, Lowe told the paper. Hagy was killed in a similar attack that April.

Reeves was now a suspect in all three cases.

“It was a nightmare,” Evans recalled. “We had three events in the course of less than a year that were remarkably similar—abductions and violent acts to women.”

The two cases Michael Reeves was convicted of in Smyth County had an obvious sexual component, he pointed out.

“It was just something that you don’t think happens in a rural county and there it was my second year of prosecution.”

The night Betty Shumate was killed, Picklesimer was listening to a scanner, according to News & Messenger reports at the time. He heard rescuers called to Reeves’ house for an attempted suicide.

Desiree said investigators told her they believed Betty tried to run from her attacker. She got as far as the interstate, where she was unable to climb the fence. It’s there investigators believe she was overtaken and forced into a vehicle.

“I guess he took control of her and got her in the car,” Desiree said. “They do know that he (Reeves) was shot in the shoulder and if his arm would have been down by his side, it would have went through.”

“My theory is that Betty Shumate and Michael Reeves scuffled in the truck,” Lowe told the News & Messenger in 1989. “We know that Reeves had a pistol earlier that night. Later, when Reeves was found by rescue squad workers, he had blood on his left forearm and right thigh. The bullet went behind the shoulder blade and did not penetrate it, and little blood was found around the wound. There was no gun powder wound.”

Lowe told the paper that Reeves would have had gun powder burns had he fired the gun himself at that close range.

According to Betty Shumate’s autopsy report, a cutting wound was found on her right index finger.

“The pistol was sharp inside the hammer and probably cut her finger when she shot Reeves in the struggle,” Lowe said.

The timeframe in which the events occurred also pointed to Michael Reeves, Lowe said.

“Five minutes and 49 seconds are between the place from where Shumate’s body was dropped to Reeves’ house traveling 40 mph. He came in shortly before 10:30 and the rescue squad received a call to his house around 10:35 p.m. The last sale at the store where Shumate worked was made at 9:51 that night.”

As evidence in the case continued to develop, Mack Shumate was cleared of having any part in Betty Shumate’s death. But Evans couldn’t quite charge Reeves in Shumate’s or Hagy’s deaths. Any evidence that was previously used against Mack Shumate would now be used in Reeves’ defense.

With Michael Reeves already behind bars on charges in the other two Smyth cases, Evans and investigators would have time to strengthen their case against him in Betty Shumate’s slaying.

Or so they thought.

“During this whole time, Craven County, North Carolina is contacting us eagerly trying to get him extradited to North Carolina because they think they have made a murder case,” Evans said.

Police in North Carolina believed Michael Reeves was responsible for the slaying of 26-year-old Susan Toler, who was attacked and shot in the head while her 2-year-old child was present.

Evans was in favor of the extradition and helped see to it that Reeves would be tried in North Carolina.

“We wanted to get him there to be tried in North Carolina so their case didn’t get any older,” he explained.

Unbeknownst to Evans at the time, though, the governors of the two states had been making an agreement. Should Reeves get the death penalty in the North Carolina case, he wouldn’t return to stand trial in Virginia.

The governor’s office called Evans and asked for his input.

“I told them that I opposed it because it deprived us of having a day in court in our cases,” Evans said. “But their point was—and it was a valid point—if he got the death penalty, for one thing, you can’t give him any worse if he comes back to Virginia. And secondly, why take the security risk of transporting a capital murderer to Virginia?”

“I understood the governor’s point that there is a security risk to bring somebody back across state lines who has nothing to lose,” Evans said.”When he’s got the death penalty, he has nothing to lose.”

In addition to the Virginia and North Carolina cases, Reeves was also a suspect in the rapes of two Tennessee women.

It wasn’t until 1999 that scientific evidence became available to link Reeves to Betty Shumate’s and Barbara Hagy’s deaths. That evidence was confirmed following a complete re-investigation of the case by sheriff’s office investigators and the Virginia State Police at Evans’ direction.

By that time, however, Reeves had already been convicted of Toler’s murder and was awaiting execution in North Carolina.

The death penalty hanging over his head meant that Michael Reeves would never see a Virginia trial.

He was originally scheduled to be executed in 1995, but his execution was stayed to allow him to pursue appeals. The 56-year-old Reeves is now one of 142 inmates awaiting execution in North Carolina. Due to litigation on the death penalty in that state, it has not executed anyone in nearly 13 years. It is unclear if it will resume.

Evans was OK with the fact that Michael Reeves wouldn’t stand trial in Virginia, since he was already slated to be executed.

“But as the years went on, it’s become somewhat frustrating because you begin to wonder if it’s ever going to happen and you also have your evidence getting staler and staler,” he said.

Over the past 30 years, witnesses in the case have died, an investigating officer has died and other officers have retired.

Although she believes whole-heartedly that her mother’s killer is sitting on death row in another state for another woman’s murder, Desiree said she still carries a certain level of fear with her all these years later.

“It’s molded the person that I am today,” she said. “I look at life a whole lot differently than a lot of people do. I don’t go into parking lots by myself; I’m always looking over my shoulder. I work second shift and I don’t walk outside by myself at night, and I’ve done that since I was a little girl.”

Without a conviction in her mother’s killing, Desiree said she still feels that she lacks closure.

“He’s never going to stand trial for my mom’s murder,” Desiree said. “I just feel like she never got her day in court. He should still have to pay for my mom’s murder, too.”

Evans feels the same way. He’d like to see Reeves prosecuted in both Betty Shumate’s and Barbara Jean Hagy’s killings. He admits, though, that even if North Carolina does abolish the death penalty, getting Reeves back to Virginia would be unlikely.

Although she still harbors resentment for her father’s wrongful imprisonment and for the lack of a trial for Michael Reeves, Desiree tries not to dwell on it too much.

“He’s robbed enough years of my life; he’s not worth five more minutes of my time.”

https://www.swvatoday.com/news/artic…8090433ef.html

Kenneth Rouse North Carolina Death Row

Kenneth Rouse was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder and attempted sexual assault of a woman. According to court documents Kenneth Rouse would rob a convenience store where he sexually assaulted and then murdered the store clerk. Kenneth Rouse would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Kenneth Rouse 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0353186
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	02/01/1963
Age:	58
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

Kenneth Rouse More News

On 16 March 1991, a Saturday, at 10:30 p.m. Andrew Surratt entered a convenience store, The Pantry, in Asheboro, and noticed that a cigarette stand was knocked over and that cigarettes were scattered about the floor. He called out for the clerk but heard no response. He left and called the police from a pay phone nearby.

*549 Several officers soon arrived at The Pantry. Officer Mark Hinshaw of the Asheboro Police Department responded to the call and arrived at The Pantry at 10:39 p.m. He checked the aisles and found nothing suspicious. He heard a muffled sound coming from a storage room. He and Sergeant York, who had arrived at the scene, entered the room where they found defendant against a wall. Hinshaw aimed his gun at defendant, and defendant said, “I ain’t got nothing, man.”

Kenneth Rouse had blood on him, especially on the front of his shirt, his pants, his hands, his waist, his legs and his underwear. There were abrasions on his knees. His pants were unzipped but fastened at the top. His belt was hanging off. Hinshaw ordered defendant to freeze and pinned him behind the door. Defendant was then handcuffed and taken out of the room. Lieutenant Charles Bulla searched defendant in the store and found in defendant’s pocket three rolls of pennies in a plastic container. Kenneth Rouse was then taken away. Defendant did not resist the officers at this or any time. No odor of alcohol was found on defendant’s breath.

On the floor of the storage room was Hazel Colleen Broadway, lying in a pool of blood. She tried to tell Hinshaw something but soon died. Broadway was covered in blood. There were handprints on her body. She was wearing a blouse, and her pants had been pulled down to her feet. Paramedics who had arrived at the scene removed her smock in an attempt to apply cardioelectrodes to her body, at which time they noticed a knife in Broadway’s neck. The blade part of the knife was bent in a ninety-degree angle just below the handle.

More officers soon arrived at the scene who surveyed the store and collected evidence. The store was in disarray. A cigarette stand was overturned, and cigarettes were strewn about the floor. The cash register was turned sideways. Two empty rolls for pennies were on the floor. There was some other debris on the floor beside a trash can and some other penny rolls which seemed to have been knocked out of the safe. The bar stool behind the cash register had some blood on it. There were also spots of blood near the cash register.

Forensic serologist Lucy Milks concluded that the blood on defendant’s hands, shirt and underwear was consistent with samples of blood taken from the victim. The blood on his pants was not. She found no spermatozoa in the vaginal, rectal or oral smears of the victim. She also did not find semen on the victim’s clothing. Forensic chemist Glenn Parham tested defendant for the presence of drugs but found none.

Debra L. Radisch, Associate Chief Medical Examiner of North Carolina, concluded that the victim died as a result of blood loss caused by a stab wound to the left neck, severing the carotid artery and jugular vein. A person could live ten to fifteen minutes after being stabbed in that location. In addition to the lethal knife wound, there were numerous other wounds to the victim including bruises, stab wounds and abrasions to her neck, chest, stomach, arms, shoulders, thighs, knee, palm, thumb, back, and elbow. Many of these were consistent with a sharp cutting instrument. Other injuries were consistent with a blunt instrument. No injuries were found on the victim’s genital and rectal areas.

Robert E. Neill of the SBI crime laboratory, an expert in hair examinations, found one pubic hair from a black person in the pubic combings taken from the victim. This hair was microscopically consistent with a sample taken from defendant. A pubic hair found on defendant’s undershorts and a pubic hair found on defendant’s pants originated from a white person and was microscopically consistent with the victim’s hair. Five head hair fragments were found on the victim’s thighs and six on her buttocks that originated from a black person. Defendant’s pubic hairs were unique when compared to those of other black persons.

Kenneth Rouse entered evidence relating to his mental condition. Defendant used his school records and testimony from his mother to show the following: Defendant had difficulty in school and was described as being slow. At age fourteen he was struck by a truck and sustained a head injury. Defendant failed *550 the ninth grade and never returned to school. Tests showed his IQ to range between 59 and 80. He often became confused when his mother gave him various tasks, and he was often depressed. In 1983 he was admitted to a hospital for an overdose of Phenergan with Codeine; he was then referred to a mental health clinic. Later he was admitted to the hospital when he slashed his wrists.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert Rollins, Jr., testified that he diagnosed Kenneth Rouse as having organic personality disorder, which is denoted by impaired brain functioning. This disorder is associated with mood changes, poor impulse control, poor social relationships, suspiciousness and paranoia. Defendant has a history of substance abuse, especially crack cocaine and alcohol. He also diagnosed defendant with mixed personality disorder. As a result of defendant’s disorders, he had impaired functioning, such as poor planning and judgment. On 16 March 1991, defendant’s ability to make and carry out plans was impaired. Defendant’s IQ tests show that he is between mentally retarded and low average.

On cross-examination it was revealed that Dr. Rollins spoke to defendant on two occasions for a total of 130 minutes. Kenneth Rouse told Dr. Rollins that on the evening of 16 March 1991 he was using crack cocaine and alcohol. In a report from 1987 defendant indicated that he could make his own decisions and that he was working full time. Rollins characterized defendant’s suicide incidents as “gestures,” noting that they occurred after family arguments and that the wounds to the wrists were only superficial. Kenneth Rouse was employed from 1989 to the date of the crime. Defendant was competent to stand trial; he was able to help his attorneys, and he understood what his case was about.

The State then presented several witnesses in rebuttal. A former co-worker testified that defendant performed his job well and that he had no trouble conversing with defendant. A cellmate testified that Kenneth Rouse played chess, talked with other inmates, exercised and read; he acknowledged, however, that defendant “wasn’t dealing with a full deck.” A former supervisor testified that defendant was a diligent and efficient worker.

https://law.justia.com/cases/north-carolina/supreme-court/1994/120a92-0.html

Edward Davis North Carolina Death Row

Edward Davis was convicted of a murder that occurred during a robbery and was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina. According to court documents Edward Davis would rob a pawn shown and in the process would shoot and kill Mark Lane. Edward Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Edward Davis 2021 Information

Offender Number:	0100579
Inmate Status:	ACTIVE
Gender:	MALE
Race:	WHITE
Ethnic Group:	UNKNOWN
Birth Date:	11/21/1956
Age:	64
Current Location:	CENTRAL PRISON

Edward Davis More News

On 16 August 1991, defendants visited the Leicester Pawn Shop in Buncombe County where Mark Lane, the murder victim, was working and his girlfriend, Kathleen Shively, the kidnapping victim, was helping. They made three visits. The first was between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. Defendants purchased a police scanner. Davis asked whether Lane bought or pawned shotguns. When Lane told him that he did, Edward Davis stated they would be back.

The next visit was at approximately 2:30 p.m. when defendants returned with a shotgun. Lane offered them $50.00. Edward Davis rejected the offer and defendants left. During both the first and second visits, there were other customers in the store. A sign on the store stated that the store closed at 6:00 p.m.

The third visit occurred at 5:55 p.m. while Lane and Shively were preparing to close the store. Lane had placed $1,000 in cash from the cash register and a pistol in his back pocket. As defendants entered, Edward Davis was carrying a shotgun and told Lane he would accept Lane’s earlier offer of $50.00. Lane laid the shotgun on the counter and asked Shively to write up the ticket. Upon Shively’s request, Davis handed her his driver’s license. Immediately thereafter, Davis pulled a “cowboy type gun” from under his shirt and stated, “Buddy, don’t even try it. *631 Buddy, don’t even try it.” Davis was pointing the gun right at Lane, who stood with both hands at his sides. Davis then shot Lane, striking him in his left wrist. Davis shot Lane a second time, and Lane twisted around and fell to the floor. Shively then heard a third and fourth shot but did not know who fired them.

Edward Davis, pointing his pistol at Shively, ordered her to get down on the floor “you dirty fuckin bitch, or I’m going to kill you, too.” Shively fell to the floor and began crawling towards the back office. Davis kept repeating, “Crawl back there.” Hood remained silent during all of these events. After hearing defendants leave, Shively called 911 and began performing CPR on Lane. Shively positively identified defendants.

A pathologist testified that Lane had three distinct gunshot wounds. One passed through his left wrist and lodged in the left chest wall. A second entered the front shoulder and exited through the back of the shoulder. A third entered the right chest and passed through the body, with the bullet causing damage to both lungs, the diaphragm, liver, and aorta. Cause of death was massive hemorrhaging secondary to the gunshot wound through the chest.

A crime scene analyst with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department, Michael Wright, observed the victim Lane lying on the floor behind the counter in the pawn shop with a stainless steel revolver near his right hand; five unspent cartridges were found in the gun. The bullet that had been fired from the pistol was removed from the ceiling, and an exit bullet hole was found in the top of the counter top. Hand wipings from the victim indicated that the victim “could have fired a gun.”

Defendants were arrested near the Georgia-South Carolina state line, where they had wrecked their Ford Fairmont following a high-speed chase. Following waiver of their constitutional rights, both defendants gave separate, written statements which were substantially similar. According to Davis’ statement, defendants went to the pawn shop, and Edward Davis told Lane that they had two “hot” pistols and a shotgun for sale. Lane said he would buy them. Davis said that he laid the shotgun on the counter and then reached to pull the pistol out. The victim then “reached back likelike this and pulled out some sortsome little automatic. I guess it was a.25 or something. I don’t know, and he shot, and I shot back in self defense.”

Hood’s statement was similar. He said the victim reached behind him, pulled out a gun, and started firing. Davis returned fire and the victim fell. Hood did not think the victim had been hit. The victim “was firing up at me, so I reached over and shot.”

Statements by both defendants were later given to Charles E. Calloway, a Buncombe County detective with the Sheriff’s Department. There were some inconsistencies in the statements of the two defendants on this occasion. The inconsistencies were as follows: Hood intimated that both he and Davis had pistols with them during their third visit to the pawn shop. Davis said that Hood’s pistol was in the car and that Hood had gone to retrieve it before selling it.

Detective Calloway also testified that his investigation did not reveal a .25 automatic anywhere near the victim’s body. He testified on cross-examination that Shively made no reference to a robbery or an attempted robbery and said that Davis was carrying the shotgun “not like they were going to fire it, just carrying it like they were going to sell it.” Investigation revealed that nothing was missing from the pawn shop’s safe, and neither defendant was observed going into the back room or anywhere near the safe. Both money and jewelry were removed from the victim’s body prior to autopsy by investigators.

Defendants did not testify or offer any evidence during the guilt phase of the trial.

During the sentencing phase, the State offered evidence that Davis had been convicted of murder in Ohio in 1976. Defendants did not testify but offered evidence from family members and professionals regarding their family histories and personal traits.

https://law.justia.com/cases/north-carolina/supreme-court/1995/135a92-0.html