Video of the suspects being booked into jail. ———————————————————————— Two active duty Navy corpsmen and one who was recently discharged were arrested Friday in the shooting deaths of a Carteret County father and son. Investigators detailed the case at a press conference Monday. Read the latest news from the press conference. Read the arrest news. [...]

New reporter Amanda Wilcox, with Mike McHugh’s help, wrote a compelling article about a Marine involved in a murder/suicide late last week. Read the news. They have a good follow-up for today’s newspaper. Check it out. The Marine who killed his wife’s lover before killing himself cried out in many ways. One of them was [...]

Much more will be reported on this case by the time it’s all over with. The story was picked up by The Associated Press and ran all over the world. Read our initial report. And the follow up. The NEW YORK DAILY NEWS report. The weapons and combat equipment were sold online to China, but [...]

Cops think they’ve solved an ear-biting cold case with the arrest of a Hubert man accused in another more recent chopping case. Read the news. The police press release. The victim’s ear:

Maurice Skinner and Diego Everette were killed April 15. “These deaths, although tragic for the decedents’ families, are justified pursuant to the facts and circumstances of this investigation and the law of North Carolina.” – District Attorney Ernie Lee. Lee said the state’s newly updated Castle Doctrine applies in the case. Read the news. The article [...]

This is not a comment on the guilt or innocence of the community watchman who apparently shot and killed a teenager in Sanford, Fla., last month. This is a question of image and why the media is ignoring readily available photos showing  that teenager in a possibly different light. I’m not saying that dressing a [...]

Michael Ward is suspected of having a gun in his rectum when he was booked into the Onslow County Jail. Read the news. Read the official press release from the Sheriff’s Office. It seems besides having a suspected ability for really packing it in, Ward has a proclivity for making up identities. He is charged [...]

A former high-ranking Pender County Sheriff’s deputy who picked up a young man earlier this year in Wilmington and was arrested shortly thereafter on charges of crimes against nature and johning for a prostitute was found guilty in court Thursday of the former and walked on the latter count. Mark Sloan was sentenced to serve 18 months of unsupervised [...]

A would-be robber in a Spider-Man mask wielding a sword was taken down Wednesday by a woman with a broom. Read the news. Forget that the guy allegedly had a Samurai sword and still got a beat down, I find it hilarious that the crime scene was within web-spinner range of the guy’s home. Sheriff’s Sgt. David South’s [...]

A Jacksonville man – who hasn’t lived here in a while because he’s been on the lam – is accused of killing a Virginia man by running him off the interstate in a road rage incident. Read the news. Sessoms and his girlfriend (accussed of hiding pills in her bra): The real question authorities should [...]

George Hayden, convicted last year of the 1972 shooting death of Sgt. Bill Miller, was released by the N.C. Department of Correction shortly after the N.C. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s argument against the Appeals Court overturning an Onslow County jury verdict. Hayden has been home for a few days. He has spent [...]

In a courtroom brawl one lawyer likened to the 1974 Madison Square Garden rematch between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, prosecutors this week are attempting to prove Robert Lewis is responsible for his son’s death while his attorney is painting him as a sympathetic father and career police officer who has lost his livelihood. Read the news. Judges [...]

Either Mr. Akers changed his mind or there was a miscommunication in court, either way Dick McNeil has been appointed to represent him. A couple of days ago I said that I would chose McNeil if I were in a similar situation and now he has been appointed to this case . The Akers family should [...]

A lot, I mean a lot, has happened in the last several days. Here is a run down of several loose ends and updates to stories and cases I have covered in the newspaper or on the blog: - A Sampson County man who killed his family will spend the rest of his life in prison now [...]

- One of the longest criminal trials in Wake County history is coming to a close. In a case I mentioned on the blog from time to time since 2008, Cary resident Brad Cooper is accused of killing his wife he said went out for a jog. Read the updated news here. – I have it [...]

A report that begin about a former Marine accused of child abuse ballooned into a much bigger story as details emerged in the marriage of the defendant and his now-estranged wife. The resulting article is online. Ironic that this report – which was held for a few days due to spacing issues because of so many [...]

The family of a woman accused of identity theft says she is caught up in a case of mistaken identity. Police have made an arrest in Friday’s shopping spree in which three women used credit cards stolen from teacher’s purses to buy Ester baskets, gift cards and electronics. Sharonda White, the arrestee’s sister, says Candra Burgess is innocent. [...]

Mrs. Torres is in Myrtle Beach. As one person commented on the news site: “People like this cause doubt to be cast on real missing persons cases.” ————————————————————————– As Mike McHugh and I stood in the rain taking picture’s of Shirleyleta Torres’ vehicle parked in the Sheriff’s Office sally port, I couldn’t help but feel a sense [...]

Wednesday proved to be a long, difficult day of testimony in the manslaughter trial of Robert Lewis. I wasn’t surprised to learn the 911 operator who took the call ended up leaving the job. This tragedy has affected everyone. When the 911 recording finished playing at 4 :30 p.m., the courtroom was completely silent with everyone from the jury to [...]

Most often, the rub in a murder trial is not the high drama of innocence versus guilt but first-degree versus second-degree. In the current murder trial of Ryan Casler, his attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Wally Paramore has already conceded more or less to the jury that his client killed Joseph Wells. With the state refusing to [...]

Sheriff Ed Brown told me Saturday that while the location of the bodies of two children missing since 1962 remains a mystery, their souls have been in heaven since the moment they were murdered. I’d like to believe that. The man believed to have kidnapped the children told his wife he dumped them at the bottom of a mine [...]

I’m baffled over this one. A Camp Lejeune Marine Colonel was charged over the weekend with stealing two printer cartridges and STP Gas Treatment from the Marine Boulevard Wal-Mart. Read military reporter Hope Hodge’s story. Col. Petit taking command of the 24th MEU back in September: Read that story here. I have a line on [...]

I have spoken to several people present during the New Year’s shooting at The Rock nightclub that hospitalized two young men. Much of what I have learned will be included in an upcoming Daily News article on area nightclubs. But some of what I’ve learned couldn’t wait until then. Information pertinent to the investigation has [...]

Dana Browning threw out her baby with the bath water. Her mother, Janet Mogelinicki Starling, is in prison for fraud. And her sister, Brandy Sawyer, is serving life for starving her stepdaughter to death. Brandy was posting on jdnews.com how angry she was at her sister for dumping her baby in the trash in 2008, but then she [...]

Cody Richardson creeps me out. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to strangling his wife and sleeping in the bed with her for two days. Click the above article link to read his five-page confession, two suicide notes and a letter from his victim’s mother to the court asking for leniency (no, seriously). I did not include [...]

The recent arrest in Craven County of a person central to the Jennifer Hamilton Morton case has renewed a lively discussion on this blog of the circumstances surrounding her tragic death. This case has been of interest to Mike McHugh and I since we first wrote about it. The recent comments have not been ignored [...]

- Authorities have made an arrest in the murder of Jerry Pickett who had his throat slit in September. Crime Stoppers had received some tips about drug activity involving Pickett, but he was dead before detectives could follow up on the information… – The N.C. State Medical Examiner’s Office has released the autopsy report of Anneka [...]

N.C. State Sen. Charlie Albertson is going out with a bang. The long-time law-maker – who announced last month he wasn’t running again - is crooning about Willie Nelson’s band being busted for weed and moonshine before a concert, that didn’t happen, in Kenansville a few weeks back. Check it out: I wonder whether Dewey Hudson [...]

A story I feel is just not getting enough attention in the news media is the recent re-conviction of a former Camp Lejeune Marine who set out with five others to commit a racial murder – and did so. If you have a mental image in your head of skin-headed white Marines in off-duty attire that [...]

Read the news article about Laurean’s response to the Lauterbachs’ wrongful death lawsuit.  I am anticipating some big news in the Cesar Laurean case Friday. Can’t say what just yet, but I will post it here and jdnews.com as soon as possible.

Read the news here. This story is not over with. I expect more to follow on this case… I spoke to Ernie Wright today (always a pleasure). He is representing both Robert and Kim Lewis though. Isn’t that a conflict of interest somehow? And although his name didn’t make it into the article, Onslow County [...]

WCTI-TV wants to be dropped from a lawsuit against station meteorologist Skip Waters. Read the news article. The civil lawsuit filed in July by 21-year-old John Lero contends that Waters plied Lero with marijuana, showed him pornographic material and began a sexual relationship with him when Lero was 16. The TV station is named in [...]

The FBI has asked local authorities to see whether they have any old cases that might be linked to alleged Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell. Read news here. That was the whole reason The Daily News reported Sowell’s connection to Lejeune last week. Read that here. (This article has more specific dates of service for [...]

WCTI-TV has a video interview online with the guardian of the baby whose toes were chewed off by a pit bull puppy. Watch it here. The video shows the baby’s foot, which is healed now, but the toes are obviously missing. It was good to see the baby acting normal and making baby sounds. And [...]

I made a major error in reporting on the Lawrence Dowsing murder trial in today’s newspaper. The online story has been corrected and I will add a correction with the story I put in Saturday’s paper. Read the corrected article here. Police found a pair of bloody jeans in the defendant’s home. I incorrectly identified [...]

Sometimes reporters are relieved when a big story breaks outside their coverage area. Lord knows we have enough on our plate on a daily basis. But sometimes a story is just so good reporters hate to see it pass with no local connection. Such was the case when the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced today that a [...]

Be extra careful where you get your drugs from in Iredell County. During a recent drug buy, the buyer and the seller were both undercover. The buyers - Statesville city cops - hooked up the seller – an Iredell deputy sheriff – before it all got straitened out.   I know a couple of undercover cops and [...]

I have reported a lot on a Marine who recently pleaded guilty to taking nude photos of a teenage girl while she was passed out drunk. The Marine’s wife has been implicated by law enforcement in the crime. I received an e-mail from her I believe to be authentic because of the address. In the [...]

Here’s a good example of interstate law enforcement cooperation: Police in Kentucky have arrested a North Carolina man on charges he dumped a body in West Virginia. Straight from Carteret County Sheriff’s Department press release: Police Officers in Bardstown, Kentucky arrested 39-year-old Erick Deickman on Wednesday afternoon in connection with the death of Andrew Mulvany [...]

A Pender County Sheriff’s deputy took a demotion after calling in help in an animal case. He had also tried to buy one of the horses he later had seized. Read the story here. WECT-TV Now as if all that wasn’t enough to complicate this story, I spoke to the N.C. Dept. of Agriculture on [...]

A body found in a trash can in West Virginia on Monday has been traced back to a Carteret County man because of his pacemaker. Read news here.

A melodramatic trial came to an end this week with a surprise ending. I have a feeling the story is far, far from over though. Marriage break-ups hit a new low during this ordeal as a female probation officer’s handgun came up missing and was found in an air vent in her estranged husband’s house. [...]

An Onslow County Magistrate interjected herself into a December trial over drainage ditches, causing a mistrial. Less than two weeks later, authorities arrested the defendant in the case and charged him with shooting the prosecuting witness. Read the news article here. Several court officials I spoke to today are not happy about the way this [...]

Almost one year exactly from when Maria Lauterbach’s body was found and authorities announced her assailant had fled to Mexico, history is repeating itself just north of here. The missing Sampson County woman I told you about Friday is dead. Authorities found her body in a wooded area not far from her home this weekend, [...]

It was one year ago today that authorities found Maria Lauterbach and her unborn son in a shallow grave behind Cesar Laurean’s Half Moon community home. Laurean was already on a bus bound for his native Mexico. There were many, many law enforcement officers who took part in that investigation and made Laurean’s arrest in Mexico [...]

I have spoken to family members of the victim and I have spoken to law enforcement about the case recently. I have not written about the case for the newspaper yet. I am providing some links to previous Daily News articles about the homicide. Here is a brief synopsis compiled from a couple of Daily [...]