Judge to Decide if Jury Will Learn of J.C. Castor's Previous Murder Conviction

BY JOHN PATTERSON
SALISBURY POST

The judge in the capital murder trial of J.C. Castor was set to make a decision this morning on whether jurors would be allowed to hear about Castor's past criminal activity.

The state could rest its case against Castor as early as today.

Castor, on trial for the Jan. 9, 1998, murder of Golden Billings, has a record that includes a 16-year stint in prison for the 1971 murder of an 81-year-old Cabarrus County woman. District Attorney Bill Kenerly and defense attorneys Marshall Bickett and Bays Shoaf this morning outlined their reasons, respectively, why the jury should or shouldn't hear about Castor's record.

Kenerly noted what he called ''remarkable similarities'' between the 1971 murder of Pearl Walker and Billings' murder last year. Castor, Kenerly said, used a shotgun loaded with ''birdshot'' in both murders; in both shootings, wadding from a spent shotgun shell was found on the victim, indicating both were shot at close range.

Defense attorney Shoaf, arguing against admitting evidence about the earlier murder, said allowing such evidence could unfairly bias the jurors. If the judge decides to allow testimony about Castor's record, the judge should set limits on that evidence, Shoaf said.

In other testimony and developments:

- Judge Thomas Ross late Wednesday afternoon decided to allow the jury to hear a statement taken from Castor's nephew, 17-year-old Kenneth Gabriel, in the days shortly after Billings' murder.

Gabriel, in the statement, said he saw Castor with a short-barrel shotgun the night of Billings' murder. Gabriel also told investigators he saw Castor dropping shotgun shells.

Through his statement, Gabriel became the second witness to offer evidence that Castor had a gun that night. Jennifer Billings, Golden Billings' wife, testified earlier that she briefly saw Castor wiping off a shotgun in the minutes following her husband's death.

Defense attorneys tried to keep Gabriel's statement out of the trial. Gabriel wasn't available to take the witness stand, after allegedly leaving the state. Despite repeated attempts, prosecutors haven't been able to find him.

In allowing the statement, Ross said that, among other things, the timeliness of the statement and the relationship between Castor and Gabriel made the statement trustworthy enough for the jury to hear.

- Eugene Bishop, an expert in firearms forensics from the State Bureau of Investigation's crime lab, testified Wednesday that the shotgun blast that killed Billings didn't come from a 12-gauge shotgun found at Billings' south Rowan mobile home. Investigators found the shotgun in Billings' bedroom after the murder; he was found dead on his couch in the living area of his mobile home.

On cross examination, Bishop said he couldn't tell what type of gun killed Billings, but he's sure it wasn't Billings 12-gauge shotgun.

- Johnny Godfrey, the South Carolina state trooper who stopped Castor's car near Gaffney, S.C., the day after Billings' murder, testified Wednesday that Tia Barringer - earlier a witness and still a co-defendant in Billings' murder - gave him her sister's driver's license when he stopped them on U.S. 29.

After running a check on the car's license plate and sending in a description of the car, Godfrey arrested Barringer and Castor, who was a passenger.

Godfrey said Barringer was intoxicated and not fit to drive. He said he detected an odor of alcohol on Castor, but Castor cooperated with him during the arrest.

- Tommy Swing, a detective and crime scene specialist with the Rowan County Sheriff's Department, testified Wednesday that investigators never found the alleged murder weapon - a sawed-off shotgun - despite searches of Castor's car and the areas around Billings' mobile home.

Castor's trial will resume on Monday in the Rowan County Superior Courtroom. Ross was previously scheduled to be out of town for a judicial meeting.