Women nearly half those held in murder cases

By Jessie Burchette

jburchette@salisburypost.com

Twenty people are awaiting trial in Rowan County Superior Court on murder or accessory charges.

And nearly half of the 13 charged with murder are women. Six women are awaiting trial for murder, with five of those described as domestic killings — the victim a husband, former husband or boyfriend.

District Attorney Bill Kenerly has seen a much larger murder caseload. In 2006, there were 40 people put in the Rowan County Detention Center on first-degree murder charges. That was a period when every killing seemed to have a van load of people involved.

Kenerly said last week that his office was doing fairly well dealing with the murder cases until the recent outbreak —seven people murdered in the last two months.

Kenerly, who isn’t seeking re-election, will leave at the end of the year, with a new district attorney handling many of the remaining murder cases.

The oldest case dates to 2005 — a woman is charged with killing her ex-husband. Elizabeth C. Myers has been out on bond since shortly after the Oct. 24, 2005, shooting.

Reginald Leach, who was 16 when he was arrested in 2007 on a charge of murder in the death of 13-year-old Treasure Feamster, has been in jail for more than three years awaiting trial.

Leach was scheduled to enter a plea more than a year ago, but at the last minute, changed his mind, his attorneys said, and the process restarted.

The list of those awaiting trial on murder or murder-related charges, starting with the oldest:

• Elizabeth C. Myers, charged with killing Edward Eugene Shepherd, her ex-husband, Oct. 24, 2005, at 369 Fisherman’s Lane. Investigators say she shot him to death inside her home.

• Samuel Alford Poole and Titus Vinson, both charged with accessory after the fact in the shooting and beating death of Anthony McFadden behind Salisbury High School in May 2006. Poole and Vinson were among nine people charged.

• Reginal Leach, charged with murder and inciting a riot, in the death of Treasure Feamster on March 16, 2007. The 13-year-old Feamster was caught in gunfire between two rival gangs outside the J.C. Price American Legion Post during a birthday party.

• Three others charged in the Treasure Feamster case who are awaiting trial: Patrick A. Hailey, felony riot; Damarcus A. Richardson and John C. Sifford, both accessory after the fact of murder.

• Chandliea Wayne Lowder, murder, in death of Thomas Vogt Jr. Lowder. Two others were originally charged with the September 2005 incident. Vogt was beaten, shot in the neck and buried under leaves. Lowder pleaded guilty to attempted murder in 2007 and testified she thought Vogt had molested her son. Vogt subsequently died as a result of the wounds. Lowder is now scheduled to be retried on murder charges.

• Michael Joseph McDowell also faces an accessory charge in the Vogt death. Another person charged in the Vogt murder, Jason Ray Sullivan, pleaded guilty in February to accessory after the fact to second-degree murder.

• Davina Mocha Miller, charged with the Sept. 1, 2008, murder of Sharmay Denise Perry. Police say Miller ran over Perry with her car on East Lafayette Street after an argument.

• Robert Douglas Earnhardt, charged with murder of his stepfather, Billy Thomas Elmore Jr., and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury of Tiffany Marie Barbee on Sept. 17, 2009, on Leisure Lane. The shooting resulted from an ongoing domestic dispute. Elmore had moved out of the house but gone back to get his dog when he was shot.

• Patty K. Elmore, wife of Billy Elmore, charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury of Tiffany Marie Barbee, a Statesville resident who had driven Billy Elmore to his former residence.

• Emily Anne Howard, charged with murder in the Sept. 24, 2009, stabbing death of Dustin Garren Lee, 17, in Kannapolis. Investigators described Lee and Howard as boyfriend-girlfriend. He was in the process of moving out when he was stabbed.

• Elizabeth Louise Whitley, charged with murder in the stabbing death of Willie Glenn Woodard on Dec. 15, 2009, as a result of a domestic dispute.

• Antonio Jackson, charged with murder in the death of Antonio Allen on Dec. 25, 2009, during a party at a home on North Jackson Street. Police said Allen pulled a pistol and shot Jackson.

• Aaron Anderson Wilks, charged with the May 21 stabbing death of Timothy Perkins on South Craige Street. Police said the stabbing resulted from a domestic dispute.

• Fredrick S. Hedgepeth, charged with two counts of murder and other charges in shooting death of Jerry Bullin and his wife, Jody Bullin, both of Conover, on June 2. The Bullins were attempting to sell a car and met Hedge-peth at Ingram MotorSports on Auction Drive where Hedgepeth worked. Their bodies were found locked inside the building.

• Alyssa C. Watts, identified as Hedgepeth’s girlfriend, charged with accessory after the fact of murder in the Bullins’ death.

• Brandy Nicole Lyons, charged in the shooting death of Roy Daniels Jr. on June 25 in Landis. The couple, who had a child together, had domestic issues.

• John C. Lambert, charged with murder in the shooting death of Larry Thomas Andrews Jr. on June 27. Lambert is also charged with the murder of Mickey Jordan in the shooting on the Square, two hours after a confrontation in a bar. Jordan died days after the shooting.

• Larry W. Call, charged with the stabbing death of Kevin Michael Rufty on June 27. Rufty’s body was found in a car on Grubb Ferry Road by firefighters responding to a wreck.