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Thread: William Murphy Found Not Guilty in 1990 NC Double Murder

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    William Murphy Found Not Guilty in 1990 NC Double Murder

    Death penalty sought against William Murphy

    The state will pursue the death penalty in its prosecution of the man accused of a double homicide that occurred nearly 20 years ago.

    During a rule 24 hearing Thursday in Caldwell County Superior Court, Assistant District Attorney Lori Goins said prosecutors plan to treat the case against 50-year-old William Eugene Murphy as a capital offense due to multiple aggravating factors. However, Lisa A. Dubs, Murphy’s defense attorney, argued against the decision, citing the length of time between the homicides and her client’s arrest.

    “The case occurred 20 years ago. Why seek the death penalty now?” she asked.

    Murphy, of 3968 Hollywood Ridge Road, was arrested April 1 while incarcerated at the Caldwell County Detention Center for an unrelated crime and charged with the Nov. 29, 1990, murders of Mark Randall Secreast and Jeanie Barlow Secreast inside their home on Wilkesboro Boulevard near Cedar Rock Grocery.

    He was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder by the grand jury in mid-April, less than a week after Dubs, a Hickory-based attorney, was appointed as his lead counsel by the Office of Indigent Defense Services.

    A second attorney will be assigned to Murphy’s case, which is normal protocol for a capital trial.

    Dubs also was lead counsel in the high-profile murder case involving Jerry Anderson in 2007, a trial that led to a hung jury, mistrial and eventual dismissal of charges without prejudice against the Sawmills dairy farmer who had been accused of killing his wife Emily. That also was a capital case.

    Mark, 29, and Jeanie Secreast, 27, were found shot to death in their home by Jeanie’s mother, Betty Geraldine Barlow, Nov. 30, 1990, when Jeanie did not show for work that morning.

    The autopsy report revealed that both victims died of gunshot wounds to the head. Jeanie also was shot in the chest, and Mark’s throat was cut by the assailant.

    Caldwell County Sheriff Alan Jones announced the arrest of Murphy as the suspect in the cold case during a press conference April 2, indicating that detectives followed up on a tip and tied that information with scientific evidence analyzed and corroborated by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to arrive at Murphy as a suspect. He remains in the Caldwell County Detention Center without bond.

    Jones said at the time investigators still were not certain about the motive for the killings, also indicating that Murphy was one of several people interviewed during the initial investigation. Murphy even served as a pallbearer at Mark Secreast’s funeral.

    Family members of the Secreasts added that Murphy’s wife at that time was one of Jeanie’s best friends, and investigators confirmed that Murphy and the Secreasts knew each other well, having attended school together at Hibriten High School.

    http://www.newstopic.net/view/full_story/7420422/article-Death-penalty-sought-against-William-Murphy?instance=main_article

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    October 31, 2013

    Judge orders more DNA testing in double-murder case

    LENOIR — One more DNA test has been approved in the case of William Eugene Murphy, charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 1990 killings of Mark and Jeanie Seacrest.

    Prosecutors have obtained a DNA sample from a person they have not publicly identified. Judge Thomas Edwards issued an order Wednesday for the state crime lab to test it against a sample taken from a stain on the pants of Jeanie Seacrest, to exclude the person as the contributor of the sample.

    Murphy's attorney, Lisa Dubs, objected to any further delay in moving this case to trial. With a rush letter from Edwards, the test should be completed in 60 days, Assistant District Attorney Clifton Smith said, and within two days after that the results must be shared with Murphy's attorneys.

    The bodies of Jeanie and Mark Seacrest were found Nov. 30, 1990. Autopsies revealed both had been shot in the head, Jeanie Seacrest had been shot in the chest, and Mark Seacrest's throat had been cut. Murphy was interviewed during the initial investigation and charged with the killings in April 2010, while already in the Caldwell County Detention Center on a charge of assault on a female.

    In previous hearings, attorneys expressed concerns about how much the DNA samples in this case, which are now more than 20 years old and come from stains on bedding items, clothing and a semi-automatic handgun believed to have been used in the killings, may have degraded.

    http://www.newstopic.net/x2082477426...le-murder-case

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    August 12, 2015

    Trial date continued in 25-year-old double homicide

    By Joe Marusak
    The Charlotte Observer

    A Caldwell County Superior Court judge has agreed to postpone the trial of a Lenoir man accused of a double homicide 25 years ago.

    The trial of William Eugene Murphy, 56, was scheduled for Aug. 24, but one of his attorneys filed a motion to have the case postponed because her co-counsel is involved in a capital murder case in Davidson County. Judge Nathaniel Poovey granted the motion during a hearing Tuesday and ordered both sides to appear before him Sept. 25 to set another date.

    Murphy was arrested and charged in 2010 in connection with the 1990 murders of Mark Randall Seacrest and his wife, Jeanie Diane Seacrest, in their Caldwell County home. The case remained unsolved until new evidence surfaced that led to Murphy’s arrest, prosecutors said.

    Murphy has been in the Caldwell County Detention Center since his arrest.

    “This is the second time our office has had this case prepared and ready to go to trial,” District Attorney David Learner said in a statement Wednesday. “We had it prepared last fall and again this year. We’re ready, willing and able to go forward with this trial at any time.”

    http://www.charlotteobserver.com/new...e30871752.html

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    October 20, 2016

    Second Double-Murder Trial Ends in Not Guilty Verdict for Murphy

    A jury has found 57-year-old William Eugene Murphy not guilty in his second double-homicide trial in Caldwell County Superior Court. The 11-week trial came to an end today (Thursday, October 20).

    Murphy was found innocent of committing the November 1990 murders of Mark Randall Secreast and his wife, Jeanie Barlow Secreast, inside their Caldwell County home. The case was investigated at that time, but not solved. Murphy was arrested and charged with the murders in April 2010.

    The trial started on August 8. It included four weeks of jury selection prior to opening statements from Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Mathews and Defense Attorney Lisa Dubs. It was the second trial for Murphy in ten months after the first ended in a mistrial.

    The 12-member jury deliberated over a three-day period following closing arguments from Prosecutor Michael Van Buren and Dubs on Monday and Tuesday. The jury delivered its verdict to the Honorable Hugh B. Lewis, Superior Court Judge from Mecklenburg County, around 2:30 p.m. today.

    Murphy’s first trial ended on February 10 when the jurors were deadlocked six-to-six after five hours of deliberation, prompting the Honorable Nathaniel J. Poovey, Superior Court Judge from Catawba County, to declare a mistrial.

    http://www.whky.com/archive/item/134...y#.WGAmTMsix9A
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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