Jury finds Jones guilty of second-degree murder
By John Joyce
Published in News on July 19, 2015 1:50 AM
jjoyce@newsargus.com
It took a Wayne County jury less than three hours to convict Henry Calvin Jones, 35, of second-degree murder in the 2010 shooting death of Charles Ray Morgan III, 26.
Morgan died April 17, 2010, during a 4 a.m. robbery in which another man, Brian McLaurin, suffered eight gunshot wounds.
Jones was found guilty of second-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, attempted armed robbery, discharging a firearm into occupied property and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Sentencing will take place Monday after jurors -- the same 12 jurors and 14 alternates who heard the murder case -- get through the second phase of the trial. The jury will have to deliberate a second time after hearing the state's case seeking to designate Jones as a habitual felon or a violent habitual felon. Should the jury find grounds to classify Jones as a violent habitual felon, he could face a life sentence.
Assistant District Attorneys Curtis Stackhouse and Davis Weddle declined to comment after the verdict citing ethical concerns. The state bar prohibits prosecutors from commenting publicly on cases until they are decided.
"I'd like to, but it isn't over yet," Stackhouse said. "We have to get through the second phase," he added.
Neither McLaurin nor Morgan's mother, Rose Kornegay, wanted to comment on the verdict either.
Defense Attorney George E. Kelly, however, said he thought the jury was at least somewhat sympathetic to his client since they convicted him on second-degree murder rather than first-degree murder. A first-degree murder conviction would have carried an automatic life sentence regardless of Jones' habitual felon status.
"It sounds like they may have been interested in some justice. You know, looking at the co-defendant, Montrel O'Neal, the actual killer who got second-degree murder. They just didn't want to do something different for (Jones)," he said.
O'Neal, 18 at the time of the murder and now 23, agreed to testify against Jones in return for an agreement that would result in a 7- to-10-year sentence on a conviction of second-degree murder. O'Neal confessed to firing the fatal shot in both his written statement and in court, but he also identified Jones as having participated in the robbery. Based on the felony murder rule, anyone who participates in the commission of a felony that results in the death of another person is guilty of first-degree murder.
Three other men and four women allegedly participated in the planning and execution of the robbery that led to Morgan's murder, none of them were charged.
Halfway through their deliberations, the jurors asked why the other people allegedly involved in the robbery were not charged and if Jones had ever been offered, as had O'Neal, a plea agreement by the state.
Jones declined an agreement to plead guilty to second-degree murder, which would have sent him to jail for 26 years, Kelly said. But the jury would never know it.
Resident Superior Court Judge Phyllis Gorham instructed the jury to decide the case based soley on the evidence presented at trial and sent them back into deliberations.
A pre-trial motion by the state prevented Kelly from bringing up the question of why there had been no other charges brought in the case.