Jurors being picked in case
By John Joyce
Published in News on July 14, 2015 1:46 PM
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Henry Calvin Jones
Jury selection began Monday in Wayne County Superior Court for the first-degree murder trial of Henry Calvin Jones.
Jones, 35, is charged in the 2010 death of Charles Ray Morgan III and the attempted first-degree murder of Brian McLaurin.
The incident took place April 17, 2010, in the Day Circle community also known as Courtyard.
Assistant District Attorneys Davis Weddle and Curtis Stackhouse are prosecuting the case and spent much of the afternoon Monday questioning potential jurors about their ability to remain impartial based on the law.
George E. Kelly, a Raleigh-based attorney, is representing Jones.
Jury selection was expected to resume today.
Jones faces a total seven charges: first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, attempted armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and discharging a firearm into occupied property.
Weddle mentioned the possibility that the state might not offer any forensic evidence in the case and suggested the state will rely heavily on the testimony of law enforcement officers and eyewitnesses.
Kelly told potential jurors that his client has a co-defendant -- a man the state will refer to as the accomplice -- Montrel Devon O'Neal, 23.
He said Jones and O'Neal were in Courtyard. Morgan and McLaurin drove in and the shooting began. Morgan was killed. McLaurin was severely injured.
According to court documents, O'Neal pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October 2014 and agreed to testify against Jones and to await sentencing until after the trial. In return for his testimony, O'Neal will serve nine to 12 years in prison.
By the end of the day, the state had dismissed one potential juror and the defense had dismissed two more. Kelly said the case, now five years old, took a long time to come to trial.
"I'm not the first attorney appointed to the case," he said.
In June 2012, Jones' first attorney, Allen C. Foster, asked to be dismissed from the case, citing irreconcilable differences with his client.
Kelly was assigned a month later and has been preparing for trial ever since. Court documents show Kelly and O'Neal's attorney of record, William Spence, was heading toward trial in December 2013, but the date was never arranged.
O'Neal opted for the plea agreement that October, after which Jones was to stand trial alone in December 2014. A series of continuances pushed the case back yet again, during which time Weddle came to work in Wayne County and assumed much of the murder calendar from the newly elected District Attorney Matt Delbridge.
More motions were filed pushing the trial back yet again until Kelly filed a motion to dismiss the charges against his client, citing Jones' right to a fair and speedy trial.
Superior Court Judge Arnold Jones denied the motion June 5. Superior Court Judge Phyllis Gorham then assumed the case and the state and defense agreed upon a trial date of July 13.
Weddle said the trial is expected to last between four and six days.