By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
The N.C. Court of Appeals upheld the 2007 conviction of a man who assaulted two sheriff’s deputies and held law enforcement at bay for four hours in the woods.
In October 2003, John Paul Madures Jr., then 47, brandished a gun in front of his parents’ Statesville Boulevard home and threatened deputies. Madures then took off into nearby woods, where he said authorities would not take him alive.
The appellate court heard Madures’ appeal in January. The decision was filed in early July.
Madures was originally charged with two counts of assault on a law enforcement official with a firearm, two counts of resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer.
He was sentenced to a maximum of seven years.
Madures’ mother, Louise, called the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office in October 2003 and asked for Deputy Scott Flowers.
Flowers had been to the home on a previous occasion, in July 2003, for a domestic disturbance.
She was inquiring about her son’s probation. When Flowers tried to call Louise Madures back, there was no response from the phone line, 911 dispatchers determined. Flowers became worried about the mother and went to the home. He did not find Louise Madures. She’d gone to her sister’s house nearby.
Flowers found John Madures outside in his underwear and a T-shirt. Madures ran into the house. Fearing the worst, Flowers ran for cover behind a tree.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Neil Goodman arrived on the scene and found Louise Madures at her sister’s house. She asked the deputies to retrieve her pocketbook, her husband, Paul Madures Sr. and his medications.
Madures Jr. refused to open the door. The deputies kicked in the door after Louise Madures had given permission for them to use force. Inside, Madures Jr. raised a rifle to the officers.
He ran into the woods and hid inside his shed for four hours.
Madures argued in his appeal that evidence admitted in court about his previous run-ins with the law and subsequent convictions on those crimes was an abuse of discretion. The court, however, disagreed, saying his mother’s 911 call to authorities to report a domestic disturbance in July 2003 and Madures’ guilty plea to communicating threats was merely to “complete a picture for the jury.”
Also in July 2003, while placed inside Deputy Flowers’ car, Madures began kicking out the rear-passenger window. He cursed the officer while Flowers was explaining the charges to Madures. The exchange was recorded by the in-car camera/recording device.
The appeals court said the July recordings further proved Madures’ capability to assault law enforcement and resist officers.
Madures also contends that Superior Court Judge John L. Holshouser should’ve excused himself from covering the trial since the judge previously met the Madureses during negotiations between the family and a gas company for an easement on the family’s property.
The court said Madures made no request during his 2007 trial to have Holshouser recused.