| Viewing Single Post From: Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, July 4, 2009 | |
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| abb | Jul 4 2009, 04:29 AM |
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http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/orange/10-1178114.cfm The case that Coleman will never forget BY BETH VELLIQUETTE : The Herald-Sun bvelliquette@heraldsun.com Jul 4, 2009 Bookmark and Share CHAPEL HILL -- Alonzo Coleman can tell quite a few stories about his days as a District Court judge in Orange and Chatham counties, but there's one case he'll never forget. In 1996, a local man, Stacy Norwin Jones, who grew up in the area and played football at Chapel Hill High School, had been charged with assault and kidnapping for grabbing a woman on Rosemary Street, pulling her into the bushes and attempting to strangle her. When Jones appeared in Orange County District Court, a prosecutor asked Coleman to increase Jones' bond but didn't give a reason for the request. Without a compelling reason, Coleman thought the bond was reasonable as it was and he did not increase it. Jones posted bond and was released from jail. That weekend, he killed a young woman, Heather Dawn Prather, in her apartment on Estes Drive Extension. Jones knew the woman from working out with her at a Carrboro gym. He went to her apartment, talked his way in, then beat her to death. After her death, Coleman learned the reason prosecutors wanted the higher bond was that Jones was being investigated in Washington, D.C., for two murders there. The prosecutor, however, didn't want to tell Coleman that in open court because law enforcement officials didn't want Jones to know he was under investigation, Coleman said. Coleman did some research and found out that a judge can receive information from a prosecutor without the defense being told what it is when deciding bond. That was news to a number of people, including other judges, he said. "She could have told me why without the other side knowing it," he said. "I've been very careful since then." Several weeks after Prather was killed, Coleman was working in the Chapel Hill courtroom, and during a break, as he likes to do, he took a walk through the Arboretum on the UNC campus. What he saw broke his heart. A group of Prather's girlfriends happened to be there holding a private memorial service for her in the gardens. Coleman was already in distress about what happened, but seeing the women mourning the death of their friend was like a punch in the stomach. "I felt awful," he said. Jones later pleaded guilty to killing Prather and is serving a life sentence in the N.C. Department of Correction for her death. Jones also was convicted of one of the two murders in Washington, D.C. If he ever is released from prison in North Carolina, he will be transferred to Washington to begin serving a life sentence for that murder. |
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| Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, July 4, 2009 · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers | |
9:01 AM Dec 1
