Heather Marie Catterton
Deborah Ratchford
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Man charged in Gastonia murders wants to represent himself
GASTONIA, N.C. -- Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell says he will ask for the death penalty against the man charged with murdering two women from Gastonia over the past two months.
Danny Hembree appeared in court Monday for the first time since his arrest Saturday. He is charged with the murders of 30-year-old Randi Saldana and 17-year-old Heather Catterton.
Hembree said in court that he wants to represent himself, and he also said he has been the target of threats since his arrest.
"I'm receiving death threats in the jail. I haven't been tried. I haven't been convicted," he said.
The district attorney said he did not think security was a question and that Hembree would stay where he is in the Gaston County jail.
Investigators will still not say how the two women were killed or why, but NewsChannel 36 has learned police believe Hembree murdered both girls at the house where Hembree lives with his mother.
Hembree faces an additional charge of murder for the death of yet another woman in Gastonia. He allegedly killed 30-year-old Deborah Ratchford in August 1992.
Her body was found in a cemetery. She had several cuts around her throat and chest.
A second man, 41-year-old James Swanson, was also charged in that killing.
Investigators say there is no relationship between that murder and the recent killings of Saldana and Catterton.
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Accused-Killer-in-Court-78719997.html
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