Legal News for Chapel Hill, North Carolina
United States of America v. Roderick Michael Bates
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with attempted wire and identity fraud. Roderick Michael Bates, 55, used stolen identities with fake driver’s licenses to secure financing for farm machinery and equipment from a local Sampson County business. Using these identities, he fraudulently purchased high-value items totaling more than $65,000, includi... More...
(03-25-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Quintin Deandre Hairston
Greenville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with felony conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon; two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon; assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury; attempted first-degree murder; and first-degree burglary. In July 2020, defendant, Zyquez McMillan, Micah Mims, and ... More...
(03-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Andre Whitehurst
Charlotte, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with theft of mail by a postal employee and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. From April 2022 to September 2024, Andre Whitehurst, 34, of Charlotte, conspired with Rashad Lowery, Aaron Grice, and others to execute a bank fraud scheme involving stolen mail. Whitehurst used his position as a U.S. Postal Service cl... More...
(03-24-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Herman Anthony Maynor
Nashville, North Carolina criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, possession of a firearm by a felon, and attaining the states of a habitual felon. On 6 February 2023, Defendant was indicted for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, discharging a firearm within city limits in vi... More...
(03-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Tracey Hernandez
Greensboro, North Carolina criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return. Aents with the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CI”) began investigating Tracey Hernandez, 39, for preparing and filing IRS false income tax returns for her clients. Hernandez acted as a “ghost preparer,” meani... More...
(03-24-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Michael Aaron McDuffie
Ashevboro, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with trafficking in heroin by possession. On 6 December 2021, a Randolph County grand jury indicted defendant on one count each of trafficking opium or heroin, maintaining a vehicle for keeping or selling controlled substances, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver heroin.... More...
(03-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Rick Derrell McIntyre
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to sell and possess with intent to sell 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and selling of 50 grams or more of meth. The Fayetteville Police Department (FPD), the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies identified Inmate Rick Derrell McIntyre as the head of a large-scale drug trafficking organizat... More...
(03-20-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Ricky McMillian, Erica McMillian, Dwayne McMillian and Darian McMillian
Wilmington, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A Robeson County Deputy Sheriff Ricky McMillian, his wife, and two adult sons engaged in a scheme to defraud the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and by submitting false loan applications which r... More...
(03-14-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Deon Lee Muckelvene
Asheville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, a Class E felony. Deon Lee Muckelvene, 41, accused of stabbing that left a man with a knife protruding from his head in downtown Asheville in 2025.... More...
(03-14-2026 - NC)State of South Carolina v. Michael Solomon Brocenos, Tyler Byrne Hackett Kelly, and Emily Kathryn Murphy
Asheville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendants charged with ethnic intimidation. Michael Solomon Brocenos, 34, Tyler Byrne Hackett Kelly, 33, and Emily Kathryn Murphy, 38, allegedly assaulted a group of attendees live-streaming the seminar on June 29, 2024, titled "Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance," hosted by the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfa... More...
(03-14-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Mikah Brondyke
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represents the Defendant charged with sex crimes against children. Former Wake County school teacher and youth pastor accused of committing sex crimes against children.... More...
(03-04-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Fredy Mauricio Buruca, a/k/a “Piranha,” “Machete,” and “Insoportable” and Santos Guillermo Ramirez Mancia, a/k/a “Azazel,” “Timido,” and “Johnny”
Charlotte, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant's charged with conspiracy to conduct affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activities. Fredy Mauricio Buruca, a/k/a “Piranha,” “Machete,” and “Insoportable,” 27, of El Salvador, was sentenced to 30 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to re... More...
(02-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Rodney Jamine Moore, Jr.
Greensboro, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with felony possession of a firearm. On April 29, 2024, just before noon, a man, later identified as Rodney Jamine Moore, Jr., age 60 of High Point, North Carolina, was reported to be randomly firing a gun outside of High Point Housing Authority’s Astor Dowdy Tower. High Point Police Department officers resp... More...
(02-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Eugene Montale Jenkins
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with possessing with intent to distribute forty (40) grams or more of a mixture and substance containing fentanyl and ANPP, an a quality of marijuana. Eugene Montale Jenkins, age 36, was a known drug dealer In Edgecombe County who had sold fentanyl, marijuana, cocaine, and crack in from his trap house for a whi... More...
(02-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. David Ryan Winters
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with cyber-stalking, harassing, and threatening gay men on line int the Raleigh-Durham area. David Ryan Winters, age 40, became enraged at the gay community in Raleigh-Durham for perceived slights. Starting around 2016, Winters began stalking gay men online and in person, including by showing up at victims’ hom... More...
(02-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Augustine Perez Deanna Coleman
Winston--Salem, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with drug trafficking. Federal probation officers conducted warrantless searches of two residences based on their supervision of Augustine Perez, a federal supervisee subject to warrantless search conditions. Officers first searched Perez’s reported residence and then searched a separate home, owned by... More...
(02-24-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Eugene Christopher Acuff
Statesville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with mail fraud. Gene Christopher Acuff, 62, was employed as a senior manager by Company A, a large retailer with stores throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. As part of his duties, Acuff was responsible for reviewing property tax assessments on Company A’s stores and retaining real estate appra... More...
(02-14-2026 - NC)U.S. ex rel. Downs v. Insect Shield LLC, et al.
Charlotte, North Carolina, qui tam lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a False Claims Act violation theory. The United States filed its complaint-in-intervention in December 2023 alleging that Insect Shield LLC, located in North Carolina, and the Estate of Richard Lane, a co-founder and co-owner of Insect Shield, a subcontractor to multiple defense contractors who manufacture Army unif... More...
(02-14-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Isidro Arcenio Alvarado
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with naturalization fraud. Alvarado confessed to having knowingly made materially false statements under oath and penalty of perjury on his naturalization application and during a naturalization interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). He answered “No” to the following questions “Wer... More...
(02-14-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Aviel Gonzalez-Ruiz
Asheville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with reentry of deported alien and with unlawful transport of a firearm.... More...
(01-23-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Muwsay Ibn Ibrahim Tulu
Wilmington, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with possessing fentanyl and cocaine while armed and with the intent to distribute the drugs, and felon in possession of a firearm. On July 13, 2023, military police found Muwsay Ibn Ibrahim Tulu, of Fayetteville, passed out behind the wheel of a running vehicle in the middle of the road on Fort Bragg with dru... More...
(01-23-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Jeraldine Agnes Geldner
Asheville, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with wire fraud. Jeraldine Agnes Geldner, 73, worked as a contracted bookkeeper for three small businesses. As part of her duties, Geldner was responsible for handling the businesses’ accounts payable, payroll, and filing of tax returns. From 2019 through 2024, Geldner engaged in a scheme to defraud and embe... More...
(01-22-2026 - NC)State of North Carolina v. Austin Thompson
Raleigh, North, Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with six counts of murder in the first-degree. Austin Thompson, age 15, of Raleigh accused of shooting six people, killing five of them in October 2022.... More...
(01-21-2026 - NC)United States of America v. Wynn A.D. Charlebois
Charlotte, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that caused millions of dollars in losses. from 2015 to 2022, Charlebois used companies he owned and controlled, including WC Private, Wilcox Hybrid, Damon Investments, and others, to perpetrate a multi-million-dollar fraudulent investment scheme. Charlebois used his past emplo... More...
(01-14-2026 - NC)United States of America v. William Justin Lewis
Raleigh, North Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with charged with distribution of child pornography. Undercover agents with the FBI investigated online distributors and traders of CSAM when agents located a chat room where a user, later identified as William Justin Lewis, age 55, uploaded numerous disturbing images and videos of CSAM. Agents traced the IP ad... More...
(01-13-2026 - NC)