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Thread: George Thomas Wilkerson - North Carolina Death Row

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    George Thomas Wilkerson - North Carolina Death Row




    Facts of the Crime:

    On February 15, 2005, the Grand Jury of Randolph County returned bills of indictment charging George Wilkerson with two counts of murder and one count of first-degree burglary. The victims were Casey James Dinoff, 19, and Christopher Cameron Voncannon, 18. The cause came on to be capitally tried at the November 27, 2006 Criminal Session of the Randolph County Superior Court, the Honorable V. Bradford Long presiding. On December 15, 2006, the jury found Mr. Wilkerson guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree burglary. On December 20, 2006, the jury returned binding recommendations that Mr. Wilkerson be sentenced to death on both murder counts.

    On the same date, Judge Long sentenced Mr. Wilkerson to death and arrested judgment on the first-degree burglary verdict. After a three-week trial in Randolph Superior Court, George Thomas Wilkerson was sentenced to death on December 20 for the shooting deaths of two teenagers at a Randleman residence on November 11, 2005. Wilkerson became the eighth man on death row from Randolph County.

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    September 29, 2009

    RALEIGH — The North Carolina Supreme Court has found no error in the capital murder trial of George Wilkerson of Asheboro in the deaths of Casey Dinoff, 19, and Christopher Voncannon, 18, in Randleman in January 2005.

    A review by the state supreme court is mandatory in death penalty cases.

    Wilkerson was 25 years old when he was tried in Randolph Superior Court in December 2006 and found guilty on two counts of first degree murder on the basis of malice, premeditation and deliberation. The jury recommended a sentence of death which was pronounced by Judge Bradford Long on Dec. 20, 2006.

    State Supreme Court justices heard the appeal by Wilkerson’s attorneys in December 2008 and filed its ruling at the end of August 2009. Wilkerson’s attorneys argued that 17 errors were made in the trial and filed motions to have the charges dismissed and for a new trial. The Supreme Court dismissed the motions and ruled that the defendant’s trial and capital sentencing proceeding were free from prejudicial error and that the defendant’s death sentence was proportionate to the crime.

    Wilkerson and his lifelong friend, Logan Malanowski, then age 23, were both charged with the shooting deaths of half brothers Dinoff and Voncannon at their parents’ home on Adams Farm Road near Randleman on Jan. 11, 2005.

    Malanowski pled guilty in Randolph Superior Court on Jan. 26, 2007, and received two life sentences without parole.

    According to testimony and court records on events leading up to the shootings, Wilkerson and Malanowski had accused Dinoff of stealing $30 worth of cocaine and made threatening phone calls to Dinoff at his home. The half brothers were home alone at the time.

    Voncannon had called a friend to come pick them up when Malanowski called again to say they had found the cocaine and would be stopping by with a gift of marijuana as a goodwill gesture.

    Shortly after midnight, Wilkerson and Malanowski parked a car that belonged to Wilkerson’s girlfriend on the southbound shoulder of U.S. 220 Bypass and walked through a wooded area to the Dinoff residence on Adams Farm Road.

    Voncannon and two friends were outside the residence (and Dinoff was inside) when they saw two men kick the door open and heard gunshots. Voncannon ran into the house and was also shot and killed. The friends drove away and called 911.

    Wilkerson was apprehended shortly after the shootings when a deputy spotted him hiding under a parked tractor-trailer rig on the shoulder of northbound U.S. 220 Bypass. Malanowski was apprehended in Randleman the next morning.

    The ruling, written by Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert Edmunds, said the sentence of death imposed in a double first degree murder case was not disproportionate when:

    x The jury found aggravating circumstances of malice and premeditation.

    x Each murder was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of first degree burglary.

    x That each murder was part of a course of conduct in which the defendant engaged and that included the commission of other crimes of violence against other persons.

    x Our Supreme Court has never found a sentence of death disproportionate in a case where the defendant was convicted of murdering more than one victim.

    x The murders occurred inside the home of one of the victims, and a murder in one’s home is particularly shocking, not only because a life was senselessly taken, but because it was taken at an especially private place where a person has a right to feel secure.

    x Defendant was convicted of first degree murder both under the felony murder rule and on the basis of malice, premeditation and deliberation, and

    x These murders involved the use of at least two semiautomatic assault rifles and a pistol against young, unarmed victims, resulting in multiple close-range gunshot wounds to each victim’s head or neck.

    http://www.courier-tribune.com/artic...9/news/en4.txt

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    No. 09-9069 *** CAPITAL CASE ***
    Title:
    George Thomas Wilkerson, Petitioner
    v.
    North Carolina
    Docketed: February 18, 2010
    Linked with 09A558
    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of North Carolina
    Case Nos.: (170A07)
    Decision Date: September 17, 2009

    ~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Nov 30 2009 Application (09A558) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from December 16, 2009 to February 14, 2010, submitted to The
    Chief Justice.
    Dec 8 2009 Application (09A558) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until February 12, 2010.
    Feb 12 2010 Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due March 22, 2010)
    Mar 22 2010 Brief of respondent North Carolina in opposition filed.
    Apr 1 2010 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of April 16, 2010.
    Apr 19 2010 Petition DENIED.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es/09-9069.htm

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    Hill is ‘absolutely for’ death penalty for killer of her son

    RANDLEMAN — “The last words my son said were, ‘I just want to go home,’ ” Kimberly Hill said in a telephone interview on Friday.

    Hill’s son, Christopher Cameron Voncannon, 18, was shot to death by George Wilkerson on Jan. 11, 2005, at the residence of his friend, Casey James Dinoff, on Adams Farm Road near Randleman. Dinoff’s parents were at work that night.

    According to court testimony, Wilkerson had taken numerous illegal drugs and smoked marijuana numerous times before he accused Dinoff, 19, of stealing $30 worth of drugs.

    Wilkerson called later and said he was mistaken and was coming to the house to bring them some marijuana as a goodwill gesture.

    Dinoff and Voncannon had called 911 and the deputy who responded stayed in the area for about an hour.

    Hours later, at 1 a.m., Wilkerson, who was 23, and Logan Malanowski, who was 21, kicked the door in and shot the teenagers.

    Malanowski is serving two life sentences without parole. Wilkerson was sentenced to two death sentences, one for each victim, in Randolph Superior Court on Dec. 20, 2006.

    Kimberly Hill and her husband, Dwight, support the death penalty.

    “I am all for it myself,” said Dwight, who added that the family is “doing all right,” but still grieving over the loss of their son.

    “I am absolutely for it,” Kimberly said. “It seems like everybody’s rights are in the wrong place. How many rights did my son have?”

    Kimberly said the death penalty should be in place and the executions should be more swift.

    “We shouldn’t give him (Wilkerson) 10 years to work on appeals while we support him with our tax money,” she said.

    Kimberly said she couldn’t apologize for her tears because she cried every day, “but we keep on going. We don’t have any choice. We have to go on.”

    Kimberly said her son and his friend weren’t the only victims. Her family and Casey Dinoff’s family, which has moved out of the area, will suffer grief and loss the rest of their lives.

    “I think about what could have been if Chris could have lived,” she said.

    http://courier-tribune.com/news/loca....QLe7PDFO.dpuf

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