Testimony begins in '10 murder case
By John Joyce
Published in News on July 15, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Henry Calvin Jones watches as jurors were chosen for his murder trial Tuesday. Testimony also began Tuesday in the case.
Testimony began Tuesday in the first-degree murder trial of Henry Calvin Jones.
Jones, 35, faces charges in connection with the 2010 shooting death of Charles Ray Morgan III.
Four witnesses have testified so far, including the first police officer on scene, an EMS worker and the victim's mother, Rose Kornegay.
A jury of 12 citizens -- five white males, three white females, one black male and three black females -- plus two alternates has been impaneled.
In the early morning hours of April 17, 2010, Morgan, 26, and another man, Brian McLaurin, were shot in the Day Circle community, also known as Courtyard. Morgan died of his wounds and McLaurin suffered serious injuries.
Assistant District Attorney Curtis Stackhouse said in his opening statement that the motive was robbery. Morgan and McLaurin had gone to a local night club April 16 and were still carousing well into the morning of April 17 when Morgan decided to go meet some girls the men had met that evening. The girls lived at Day Circle.
McLaurin begrudgingly agreed, Stackhouse said. The men drove to Day Circle in Morgan's Chevrolet Caprice, found a vacant spot away from one of the apartment buildings and backed into a parking spot.
Stackhouse said one of the women came down and got in the back of the car for a few moments. Morgan remained in the driver seat and McLaurin remained in the front passenger seat. Moments later the woman got out of the car.
Stackhouse told the jury McLaurin would testify to what happened next, but Morgan would not. He then pointed to the defendant, Jones.
"The defendant, Mr. Henry Jones, made sure Charles Ray Morgan III wouldn't be here to testify against him," he said.
Goldsboro Police Department Cpl. Christopher Irby testified that he was among the first officers on scene after receiving the report of a subject having been shot at Day Circle.
When he arrived he found the Caprice with three doors open -- the back passenger and front passenger side doors as well as the driver's door -- and two men on the ground. McLaurin, wounded eight times by four bullets, had crawled around the car to the side of Morgan and was telling his friend to hang on. Morgan was already gone.
"I told (McLaurin) to talk to me, and not look at Charles because I did not want him to see that he was not moving and become more upset," Irby said.
Soon after, Wayne County EMS and the Goldsboro Fire Department were on the scene and Irby and his fellow officers turned the victims over to the paramedics.
Paramedic Jennifer Goodson testified next and reiterated Irby's testimony that Morgan was dead before help arrived.
Stackhouse and Assistant District Attorney Davis Weddle then called Morgan's mother, Mrs. Kornegay, to the stand. She was shown two photographs of her son at the scene of the murder and both times she identified her son by his full name.
Trial concluded for the day Tuesday with former Goldsboro Police Department crime scene technician Robert T. Smith on the stand. Smith, an assistant training specialist for the department, testified to the collection of the evidence that night, which included two baseball caps, a couple of bullets and spent shell casings and a loaded pistol, among other items.
Testimony resumed this morning.