Date: 12-27-2022

Case Style:

Willie Womble v. City of Durham, et al.

Case Number: 1:17-cv-00908

Judge: Catherine C. Eagles

Court: United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina (Durham County)

Plaintiff's Attorney:

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Defendant's Attorney: John Pritchard Roseboro, Kimberly Martin Rehberg, Sofia M. Hernandez, Henry W. Sappenfield

Description: Durham, North Carolina personal injury lawyers represented Plaintiff, who sued Defendants on a civil rights violation theory under 42 U.S.C. 1983.

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"On November 18, 1975, two men robbed a convenience store in Butner, North Carolina and escaped with $380 in cash after fatally shooting the store manager, 48-year-old Roy Bullock, in front of his 13-year-old daughter.

Police from the State Bureau of Investigation met with Durham police and developed several suspects, including Joseph Perry and Albert Willis, who were suspected of committing armed robberies in Durham. Twenty-one-year-old Willie Womble, a mentally-handicapped man known to hang around Perry and Willis, was also suspected.

On November 24, 1975, Perry was arrested in Durham on a charge of attempted robbery of a Hardee’s restaurant.
 
On December 7, 1975, Durham police detective Lorenzo Leathers began questioning Womble about an unrelated crime. Soon after, Leathers reported that Womble had implicated himself, Perry, Willis, and a fourth man, James Frazier, in the crime. Detective Leathers said Womble admitted that he was paid $20 to act as a lookout while Perry, Willis and Frazier robbed the store.

The dead victim’s daughter said she only saw two men in the store. She was unable to identify any of the four suspects.

All four were charged with first degree murder and armed robbery. Womble went to trial in Granville County Circuit Court on July 6, 1976. No physical or forensic evidence linked him to the crime. The prosecution’s case primarily was based on Womble’s confession.

Womble had recanted his confession almost immediately after he gave it. He testified in his own defense and said that he couldn’t read, was a special education student in school and that Leathers had intimidated him into signing a statement that Leathers had written out.
 
Womble said Leathers showed him a statement that Leathers had prepared and demanded that he sign it. He testified that Leathers said, “Sign this. I am trying to hang Joe Perry.”
 
Womble told the jury that Leathers read the statement to him and he replied that he didn’t know anything about the robbery and murder. When he balked at signing it, Womble said Leathers said that if he didn’t sign it, “he said he (was) going to try to hang me, too.”

Two alibi witnesses testified that Womble was with them watching television at the time of the crime.

On July 7, 1976, after a two-day trial, the jury deliberated for 15 minutes before convicting Womble of first-degree murder. The armed robbery charge was dismissed by the prosecution prior to trial. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Ultimately, the charges against Frazier and Willis were dismissed. Perry was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Thirty-seven years later, on April 13, 2013, Perry wrote a letter to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a state body established to investigate claims of wrongful conviction. Perry said he committed the robbery and murder with Willis. Willis had died, and Perry now felt free to set the record straight—Womble was innocent.

The commission staff interviewed Womble, who asserted his innocence. The commission staff interviewed Perry who said he and Willis robbed the store in Butner and that he shot Bullock. Perry told the Commission that Womble was not involved in the crime. Perry also expressed remorse for shooting Bullock in front of his daughter.

On October 17, 2014, a three-judge panel in Granville County, after reviewing the evidence presented by the commission, vacated Womble’s sentence. Granville County District Attorney Sam Currin rose from his seat in the courtroom and apologized to Womble.

Later in the day, after Womble was released from prison, Currin said, “I apologized to Mr. Womble and to the family of Mr. Ray Bullock, who was the victim. I just felt it was right. The system and the state of North Carolina failed them for 39 years.”

Womble was subsequently awarded $750,000 in state compensation. In October 2017, he filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking compensation.

In February 2018, Womble was charged with murdering a neighbor, Donna Todd, in Pittsboro, North Carolina

– Maurice Possley"

State v. Wombe, 858 S.E.2d 304 (N.C. Ct. App. 2021)

I. Background

¶ 2 Roy Brent Bullock was shot two times during a robbery and murdered while working at a Food Mart grocery store in Butner on 18 November 1975, as his thirteen-year-old daughter watched through a glass cooler. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation ("SBI") and Police Officers investigating Bullock's murder developed a list of suspects known to be involved with suspected robberies in the area. Joseph Perry, Albert Willis, and Defendant's names were on that list of suspects.

¶ 3 Durham Police Detective Lorenzo Leathers ("Detective Leathers") interviewed Defendant on matters unrelated to the Bullock homicide on 6 December 1975. Defendant made a statement to Detective Leathers about an "incident that happened over in Butner." Defendant allegedly named Perry as the shooter and corroborated the victim's statements before he died, and Bullock's daughter's testimony, that the shooter had worn, "a red and black or red and blue bandanna over the lower portion of his face." Defendant's statement was written down by Detective Leathers and was signed by Defendant. Later, Defendant's statement was typed and was again signed by Defendant. Defendant independently corroborated and acknowledged his statements the following day to SBI Agent Joseph Momier, without Detective Leathers present.

¶ 4 Detective Leathers testified Defendant was presented with three documents during the 6 December 1975 interrogation and the following day: a rights wavier form, a detailed confession handwritten by Detective Leathers, and the typewritten copy of the confession. Defendant's trial counsel did not challenge his waiver, move to suppress his confessions or Detective Leathers’ testimony, nor objected when Detective Leathers testified at trial.

¶ 5 Defendant's statement and confession indicated his involvement with Perry, Willis, and another individual, James "Boo Boo" Frazier with the robbery and Bullock's murder. Defendant stated Perry had given him twenty dollars to act as the "lookout" during the robbery and Bullock's murder.

¶ 6 Defendant testified on his own behalf at trial. He stated he had felt pressured to make the statements because the officers were "trying to blow their breath all in [his] face." Defendant also stated he was "high off beer" or under the influence when he made the confessions. Defendant presented two alibi witnesses. However, Defendant's purported alibi lost credibility after evidence of local television programming showed the testimony of his two alibi witnesses could not have been accurate.

¶ 7 The jury unanimously found Defendant guilty of first-degree felony murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment on 7 July 1976. The Supreme Court of North Carolina unanimously found no error in his conviction. See State v. Womble , 292 N.C. 455, 233 S.E.2d 534 (1977) (Moore, J.).

¶ 8 Joseph Perry was tried for first-degree murder of Roy Brent Bullock on 3 and 4 November 1976. The State presented eyewitness testimony that Perry had shot a convenience store clerk in Durham two weeks before Bullock's murder. Shell casings recovered from both murder scenes were fired from the same gun. Perry was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 November 1976.
A. State v. Bowden and Jones v. Keller

¶ 9 In State v. Bowden , 193 N.C. App. 597, 600, 668 S.E.2d 107, 109 (2008), this Court held the Fair Sentencing Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-2 (1974), "treats [a] defendant's life sentence as an 80-year sentence for all purposes." Offenders sentenced pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-2 between 1974 and 1978 argued they were entitled to sentence reduction and "good time" and "gain time" credits, which rendered them eligible for immediate or imminent release. Id.

¶ 10 In preparation for this possible release of inmates affected by the ruling in Bowden , the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction ("DAC") took blood samples of all inmates. The blood samples were taken in compliance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-266.4 (2009) (person who "has been convicted and incarcerated as a result of a conviction ... shall provide a DNA sample before parole or release from the penal system"). Defendant's blood sample was drawn without recorded objection on 28 October 2009 and was used to develop his DNA profile. Defendant's DNA profile was uploaded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Combined DNA Index System ("CODIS") on 2 February 2010.

¶ 11 The North Carolina Supreme Court later held the DAC's denial of a prisoner's "good time, gain time, and merit time for the purpose of unconditional release" from life sentences imposed under Fair Sentencing has a rational basis. Jones v. Keller , 364 N.C. 249, 259-60, 698 S.E.2d 49, 58 (2010). Defendant remained in the custody of DAC under the judgment and sentence for life imprisonment entered on the jury's conviction for the Food Mart robbery and Bullock's murder.

* * *

Remanded for re-trial.

Outcome: Settled for an undisclosed sum and dismissed.

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