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
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