Killer's Life Rests In Hands of Jurors

BY JOHN PATTERSON
SALISBURY POST

After a night's rest which, for some, might not have been that restful, jurors this morning began their deliberations in J.C. Castor's death penalty hearing.

Jurors went home Wednesday afternoon fresh with images, anecdotes, euphemisms - anything, and everything, that the attorneys arguing the case could say to sway the jury.

''We feel that we have the burden of his (Castor) life on our shoulders,'' defense attorney Bays Shoaf told jurors during his - and Castor's - final plea for a life sentence. ''*itI feel the weight of this case on my shoulders. We're not talking about anything abstract here ... We're talking about real life.''

Castor, convicted by the same jury Tuesday of first-degree murder for killing Golden Billings on Jan. 9, 1998, sat and listened as Shoaf and co-defense attorney Marshall Bickett tried to offset an earlier closing statement from District Attorney Bill Kenerly, who, among other things, called Castor a ''stone-cold-blooded killer.''

''He may look like somebody's grandfather that you know, but he didn't look like that to Golden Billings,'' Kenerly told jurors. ''The last glimpse that Golden Billings had of J.C. Castor was looking at the barrel of a double-barrel shotgun before he (Castor) blew his (Billings) lungs out.''

Kenerly, who presented his argument first, told jurors that the death penalty was designed for someone like Castor.

''If we're not going to use the death penalty for J.C. Castor, then you need to seriously consider as a citizen of this state whether we even need a death penalty,'' he said.

But Shoaf pleaded with jurors that Billings' murder does not rise to the level of ''horrible'' murders.

''Are you going to elevate this murder to the status of all the murders that deserve the death penalty in this state?'' Shoaf asked jurors. ''... Are you eroding the death penalty ... Are you cheapening the death penalty?

''J.C. (Castor) is getting away with absolutely nothing. He has not beaten the system ... You've already stopped him from getting out and murdering again. Don't cheapen or demean the death penalty. Find that the mitigating circumstances outweigh the aggravating circumstance.''

''Aggravating'' and ''mitigating'' circumstances were terms that jurors heard a lot Wednesday. Once Castor was convicted of first-degree murder, he faced the possibility of death because of a single ''aggravating circumstance'' - his conviction for the 1971 murder of 81-year-old Cabarrus County resident Pearl Walker.

Bickett and Shoaf called a number of mitigating witnesses Wednesday, including:

- Dr. William Shannon, an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, told jurors that Castor has suffered from chronic pain problems due to five back operations and a 1997 beating with a baseball bat.

Shannon testified that Castor exhibited confusion and nausea from the narcotic pain killers he took, but he later used the pain killers in excess.

- Dr. Jerry Noble, a clinical psychologist, told jurors that Castor had a number of physical and psychological problems that caused personality changes and altered his thought.

''I think he used alcohol inappropriately at times, and he had a period of unusual drug use in 1997 following his head injuries.''

Noble, who performed a variety of tests on Castor, testified that Castor's I.Q. was 84. ''That's in the borderline impairment range. I suspect that earlier in his life, though, he was at least of average intelligence.''

Noble also said Castor's 1997 head injury could have affected his ability to understand the ''criminality of his conduct'' in the Billings' murder.

- Lisa Pepper, Castor's daughter, testified that she'd never seen her father act ''violently toward anyone.''

Also, Pepper said Castor took care of his mother when no one else wanted to.

''It's something no man would want to have to do, but he did,'' Pepper said. ''He took care of her, got her to the bathroom ... the stuff no one wanted to do.''

Pepper's testimony prompted a rare show of emotion from Castor, who batted his eyes with a tissue as she testified.

- Gregory Walker, the grandson of Pearl Walker, took the stand Wednesday and told jurors that he'd run into Castor - his grandmother's killer - on occasion in the last decade or so. On those occasions, Walker testified that Castor ''treated me well,'' though he also testified that ''I don't think Castor knew who I was.''

Walker was allowed to testify but not without a stern objection from Kenerly. Kenerly called the defense's decision to put Walker on the stand ''an effort to diminish the weight of the previous wrong (of Walker's murder).''

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Castor's conviction for Walker's murder is the only aggravating circumstance that exists in this case. Jurors must weigh the 1971 murder against a list of mitigating circumstances introduced by Shoaf and Bickett on Wednesday.

The process is complex, incorporating elements of the law that most people rarely see or hear about. But it basically comes down to whether jurors think the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances.

Kenerly told jurors Wednesday that Castor's past psychological and physical problems don't excuse the two murders he's committed.

Specifically Kenerly argued that the two murders, though separated by nearly 30 years, were remarkably similar. And that, Kenerly said, shows that ''Castor hasn't learned anything.''

Shoaf and Bickett told jurors they shouldn't forget that Billings was ''a mean little man'' and that he was violent and abused drugs.

But Kenerly headed that argument off in his earlier statement.

''Don't be sidetracked - and argue this case on the wrong grounds,'' Kenerly said. ''It is not about Golden Billings' life - it is about the manner in which it was taken.''

This the first time that a Rowan jury has considered the death penalty for a killer since May 1996, when Anthony ''Poppa'' Hipps was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Sheila Wall.

Like Castor, Hipps had committed a previous murder. He was also defended by Shoaf and Bickett.