Suspect accepts plea deal
By John Joyce
Published in News on July 12, 2015 1:50 AM
A man who spent nine months on the run after the shooting and killing of two men outside an alleged Devereaux Street liquor house in September 2012 will spend up to 16 years in prison following a plea deal accepted in Wayne County Superior Court last week.
Angelo Mandril Burden, 40, of 1006-B Devereaux Street, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of second-degree murder.
Burden fled Goldsboro in September 2012 after the killing of Gary Devon Buckom, 50, and Donald Lee Mewborn, 47, Sept. 27. He was caught nine months later at a motel in Garner.
"Unfortunately we didn't have any forensics. All we had was one eye witness who we learned had some mental health issues and had been drinking at the time," District Attorney Matt Delbridge said.
Delbridge said the state would have been required to turn over the history of mental health issues the witness suffered from to the defense. And the defense could have used that information to create a reasonable doubt in jurors' minds as to Burden's guilt.
"That could have led to an acquittal," he said.
Burden maintained that he was not responsible for the killings, Delbridge said.
Superior Court Judge Arnold Jones sentenced Burden to a minimum of 156 months and a maximum of 200 months in prison, less the 762 days Burden spent in jail awaiting trial.
Delbridge said he was surprised Burden got as much time as he did, considering the lack of evidence.
"The plea was really more than I expected that we could get," he said. "It would have been senseless to take to trial with the lack of evidence we had."
Delbridge called the Burden case a "mirror image of so many killings" in Goldsboro.
Shortages of physical evidence and an unwillingness by witnesses to come forward make solving and prosecuting murders a difficult task.
"You don't really have a lot of evidence to go on to prosecute these cases," he said.