Baseball game murder pretrial begins today
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on July 13, 2009 1:46 PM
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Timothy Tramel Vaughn
A Goldsboro man was expected to appear in court today on a murder charge that stemmed from an accident last June during his child's street baseball game.
Timothy Tramel Vaughn, 37, of East Walnut Street, allegedly shot James Anwar Brewington, 29, of Waters Street, detectives close to the case said.
The events that led to the murder started with a game of baseball at the corner of Waters and East Holly streets, Goldsboro police investigators said.
"It all started when the defendant's (Vaughn's) son accidentally struck the victim's son in the head with a baseball bat while they were playing," said the detective, who asked not to be named because of the impending trial.
"That led to a phone call from the suspect's (Vaughn's) son to (Vaughn), who in turn came down, and that's when everything kind of got started," the investigator added.
Police involved with the case said they had no evidence that Vaughn and Brewington were in any sort of physical fight.
"I wouldn't even call it a fight that escalated, they were just ... talking about it, and then one thing led to another," the investigator said. "I think it was more of a verbal altercation than anything."
If Vaughn pleads not guilty, jury selection could begin today, with visiting Judge Phyllis Gorham presiding.
Investigator Dwayne Dean said after the incident in June 2008 that it was not difficult to learn about the events that led up to the shooting, as many witnesses were cooperative.
The baseball game on June 14, 2008, was describ-ed as small -- less than 10 children playing together, police have said.
"They were just in the yard playing," Dean said at the time. "One of the children was ... hit in the head with a metal baseball bat, accidentally, and that was the catalyst for all this."
Police Sgt. Chad Calloway confirmed this morning that Dean has been subpoenaed to appear in the case.