By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Wayne Eugene Hill told investigators he slept beside the dead body of Roxanne Maddry after he choked her to death the night before at his China Grove home in 2013.

On Monday, a judge sentenced Hill, now 58, to serve 18 to 22 1/2 years in prison.

He pleaded guilty and could’ve spent 20 to 25 years in prison, which the district attorney’s office asked that he receive.

Maddry’s oldest son, Derric, told authorities his mother was supposed to attend a funeral and later go to visit her friend in South Carolina, but had not made it to either. Maddry left her house on a Friday at 11 a.m. to run errands. She packed her bags for her South Carolina trip and was supposed to return home for them, but her bags were still at home. Hill had asked Maddry to come over to his home Saturday because he had a gift for her.

On Saturday, June 8, 2013, China Grove Police found Maddry’s car at Hill’s Poplar Street home. A letter signed by Hill affixed to his door said he was sorry for what he’d done and he hoped the family could forgive him. Investigators forced their way into Hill’s home and found blood throughout the home. They also found Roxanne Maddry dead inside a bedroom.

Hill said in court statements that he and Maddry had sexual intercourse that night. He said while having sex with Maddry he asked her if a man was going with her on her trip. She didn’t respond, so he choked her and she stopped breathing.

Hill told police he tried CPR but to no avail. Hill said in his statement he thought about calling 911 for help, but Maddry was already dead. According to the medical examiner, the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation.

Hill said he slept beside Maddry’s dead body until Sunday morning when he went to the grocery store for Unisom sleeping pills. He took two bottles of the pills. He later went to Sonic Drive-in for lunch and bought more sleeping pills. He swallowed 32 pills from that bottle and drank a beer.

Hill wrecked his truck about 10 p.m. on N.C. 24/27 at the Stanly-Montgomery county line and ran from the scene. He would later tell investigators he crashed his truck and ran from it because he believed someone was chasing him. He was hallucinating, his attorney James Davis told the court. He’d developed an acute psychosis.

Hill was found in a wooded area a day after Maddry was found dead in his home. He was taken to the hospital with self-inflicted injuries to his wrists and throat. He was seen by Rite Aid employees with blood all over him, and he bought bandages, Neosporin and gauze.

Derric Maddry said his mother would never know his youngest daughter, who was born after she died. Derric Maddry’s oldest daughter still asks where her grandmother is, he said in a statement read in court.

Maddrey met Hill five years before, sometime after her husband died. She enrolled her youngest son, Joey, in Hill’s karate class. Maddry told friends and F&M Bank co-workers she only wanted to be friends with Hill and even told him. She told her co-workers Hill seemed OK with being friends.

But, a week before her death, Maddry was seen walking out of the Forum Fitness Center with a male friend whom Hill believed she was dating. Hill threatened the man and Maddry had to calm Hill down.

Hill, a far cry from the curly-headed man in a mug shot with cut marks to his throat, stood Monday in a county jail-issued jumpsuit with a shorter haircut and glasses and apologized to Maddry’s family.

“I’m so sorry. I’ve very remorseful. I can’t change what I’ve done. I hope and pray you have it in your heart to forgive me,” Hill said.

Superior Court Judge Joe Crosswhite told the court, which was filled with family, friends and supporters of both Maddry and Hill, that court was no place either side would want to be, but he hoped both families could heal.

Crosswhite spent about 10 minutes reading various letters submitted by friends and family of both Maddry and Hill before he sentenced the China Grove man to prison.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.