Man arrested in Van Newkirk murder convicted of murdering 8-year-old stepdaughter in 1988
By Caroline Curran and Christina Haley
The Port City Daily
James Opelton Bradley—arrested today in the death of a Wilmington woman missing since earlier this month—was paroled last year from a life sentence in the 1988 murder of his 8-year-old stepdaughter.
Bradley, 51, served 23 years of his life sentence.
He was arrested Tuesday night, charged with the first-degree murder of 53-year-old Shannon Rippy Vannewkirk, who was reported missing April 7. On Wednesday, investigators announced they found a body believed to be Vannewkirk in Hampstead a day earlier.
Bradley was convicted of first-degree murder in Cumberland County on Jan. 22, 1990, for an offense that occurred on June 9, 1988.
According to a June 1988 Fayetteville Observer article, Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies reported that 8-year-old Alisa Ivy Gibson was beaten and strangled before her body was left in a dumpster and found days later in a landfill.
Bradley, who was 25 at the time of Gibson’s death, was convicted of first-degree murder on Jan. 22, 1990.
He was released from prison on Feb. 11, 2013, under the Fair Sentencing Law, which governed sentencing and parole in North Carolina from July 1, 1981, until Sept. 30, 1994, according to the N.C. Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission.
The N.C. Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission is required by law to grant a 90-day mandatory parole to offenders sentenced under the Fair Sentencing Act, though the mandatory parole isn’t necessarily granted at the end of the offender’s parole.
On Oct. 1, 1994, The Structured Sentencing Act took effect in North Carolina, eliminating parole as it previously existed under the Fair Sentencing Law guidelines.
During his first court appearance today, Bradley was appointed a capital defender, though District Attorney Ben David’s office said it was too early in the process to determine whether the state would seek the death penalty in the case.
District Judge Rebecca Blackmore ordered Bradley remain in custody at the New Hanover County Detention Facility without bond.
http://portcitydaily.com/2014/04/30/...ghter-in-1988/
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