Judge tosses convictions in 2002 killing of NBA star Chris Paul's grandfather
Article content
Superior Court Judge Robert Broadie vacated and dismissed their convictions late last week following a January hearing in Forsyth County.
Article content
Article content
Nathaniel Arnold Cauthen, Rayshawn Denard Banner, Christopher Levon Bryant and Jermal Matthew Tolliver had been found guilty in trials in 2004 or 2005 for the killing of Nathaniel Jones. The four were all 14 or 15 years old when they and another teen were arrested.
Article content
Jones, 61, died from a heart attack outside his Winston-Salem home after being tied up, beaten and robbed.
Article content
A three-judge panel previously had denied the defendants' innocence claims after testimony in a 2022 hearing.
Article content
But Broadie's order, filed Friday, cited recanted testimony from a key witness, poor legal representation and questionable actions by police, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. DNA profiles also 'further serve to corroborate Defendants' assertions that their confessions were false' and that they 'were not present at the scene of the crime,' the judge wrote.
Article content
Paul, Jones' grandson, was a standout high school basketball player at the time of the assault and had committed to play at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. Paul, now 40, is a 12-time NBA All-Star who now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Article content
Attorney General Jeff Jackson's office, whose lawyers defend criminal cases on appeal, asked the state Court of Appeals on Monday to halt enforcement of Broadie's order 'while we review it and consider next steps,' spokesperson Nazneen Ahmed said.
Article content
Cauthen and his brother, Banner, were convicted of first-degree murder and are serving life sentences. Bryant, Tolliver and Dorrell Brayboy were convicted of second-degree murder and were released after serving prison time. Brayboy was fatally stabbed outside a Winston-Salem supermarket in 2019.
Article content
Monday's petition by a state attorney said that, without action, Cauthen and Banner 'will be released back into the community without this Court having an opportunity to hear and determine the State's issues on appeal.'
Article content
Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O'Neill criticized Broadie's ruling, in particular his dismissals of the cases 'with prejudice,' which could make them harder to appeal.
Article content
'I have never seen that happen before in a court of law,' O'Neill said in a statement to the newspaper. 'Most judges welcome scrutiny and appellate review of their decisions.'
Article content
Christine Mumma, the lawyer for Banner and Cauthen, pushed back on criticism of the judge's ruling.
Article content
'If the General Assembly didn't want judges to have the authority to dismiss with prejudice, they wouldn't have given judges that authority,' Mumma wrote in an email. 'They also wouldn't have passed statutes recognizing if charges are dismissed with prejudice, there's no right of appeal.' Mumma is the executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, a nonprofit that helps investigate and litigate claims of innocence.
Article content
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of sexual assault in Utah
In this image made from pool video footage, Nicholas Rossi accused of faking his death and fleeing to Europe to avoid rape charges, appears at a jury trial in Salt Lake City, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (Firecrest Films via AP, Pool) SALT LAKE CITY — A Rhode Island man accused of faking his death and fleeing the United States to evade rape charges was found guilty Wednesday of sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in his first of two Utah trials. A jury in Salt Lake County found Nicholas Rossi guilty of a 2008 rape after a three-day trial in which his accuser and her parents took the stand. The verdict came hours after Rossi, 38, declined to testify on his own behalf. He will be sentenced in the case on Oct. 20 and is set to stand trial in September for another rape charge in Utah County. First-degree felony rape carries a punishment in Utah of five years to life in prison, said Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. 'We are grateful to the survivor in this case for her willingness to come forward, years after this attack took place,' Gill said in a statement Wednesday night. 'We appreciate her patience as we worked to bring the defendant back to Salt Lake County so that this trial could take place and she could get justice. It took courage and bravery to take the stand and confront her attacker to hold him accountable.' Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified through a decade-old DNA rape kit in 2018. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when the state made a push to clear its rape kit backlog. Months after he was charged in Utah County, an online obituary claimed Rossi had died on Feb. 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead. He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for COVID-19 after hospital staff in Glasgow recognized his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol notice. Rossi was extradited to Utah in January 2024 while insisting he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture. He appeared in court this week in a wheelchair, wearing a suit and tie and using an oxygen tank. Throughout the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of an intelligent man who used his charm to take advantage of a vulnerable young woman. She was living with her parents and recovering from a traumatic brain injury when she responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within about two weeks. On Monday, the woman described being asked to pay for their dates, cover Rossi's car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn't be evicted from his apartment and take on debt to buy their engagement rings. He grew hostile soon after their engagement and raped her in his bedroom one night after she drove him home, she testified. The woman said dismissive comments from her parents convinced her not to go to the police at the time. She came forward a decade later after she saw him in the news and learned he was accused of another rape from the same year. Rossi's lawyers sought to convince the jury that his accuser built up years of resentment after he made her foot the bill for everything in their monthlong relationship. They argued she accused him of rape to get back at him years later when he was getting media attention. Attorneys for Rossi did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment after the verdict Wednesday night. Rossi's accuser in the Utah County case did, however, go to the police at the time. She took the stand Tuesday to testify about her own experiences with Rossi — though he will not stand trial for that rape charge until next month. Rossi is accused of attacking the second woman, another former girlfriend, at his apartment in Orem in September 2008 after she came over to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer. When police initially interviewed Rossi, he claimed she had raped him and threatened to have him killed. Rossi grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island and had returned there before allegedly faking his death. He was previously wanted in the state for failing to register as a sex offender. The FBI has said he also faces fraud charges in Ohio, where he was convicted of sex-related charges in 2008. Hannah Schoenbaum, The Associated Press
CTV News
10 hours ago
- CTV News
Melania Trump demands Hunter Biden retract ‘extremely salacious' Epstein comments
President Donald Trump, center right, and first lady Melania Trump walk, center left, walk with Jason Hing, chief deputy of emergency services at the Los Angles Fire Department, left, and Capt. Jeff Brown, Chief of Station 69, as they tour the Pacific Palisades neighborhood affected by recent wildfires in Los Angeles, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and threatened to sue if he does not. Trump takes issue with two comments Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, made in an interview this month with British journalist Andrew Callaghan. He alleged that Epstein introduced the first lady to now-U.S. President Donald Trump. The statements are false, defamatory and 'extremely salacious,' Melania Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito, wrote in a letter to Biden. Biden's remarks were widely disseminated on social media and reported by media outlets around the world, causing the first lady 'to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm,' he wrote. Biden made the Epstein comments during a sprawling interview in which he lashed out at 'elites' and others in the Democratic Party he says undermined his father before he dropped out of last year's presidential campaign. 'Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep,' Biden said in one of the comments Trump disputes. Biden attributed the claim to author Michael Wolff, whom Trump disparaged in June as a 'third rate reporter.' He has accused Wolff of making up stories to sell books. The first lady's threats echo a favoured strategy of her husband, who has aggressively used litigation to go after critics. Public figures like the Trumps face a high bar to succeed in a defamation lawsuit. The president and first lady have long said they were introduced by Paolo Zampolli, a modeling agent, at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998. The letter is dated Aug. 6 and was first reported Wednesday by Fox News Digital. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer who has represented Biden in his criminal cases and to whom Brito's letter is addressed, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday. ___ Jonathan J. Cooper, The Associated Press
National Post
10 hours ago
- National Post
Ohio's gambling oversight agency working with MLB on probe involving Guardians
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The agency that oversees sports gambling in Ohio says it is working with Major League Baseball on the investigation of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, but had no further comment. Article content The Ohio Casino Control Commission said it was notified on June 30 by an Ohio licensed sportsbook of suspicious wagering activity on Guardians wagering events before also being contacted by MLB. Article content Article content Article content The commission conducted an independent investigation in 2023 when there was suspicious wagering activity on the University of Alabama's baseball team. Article content The commission's next meeting is on Aug. 20. Gov. Mike DeWine has asked the commission to ban player-specific micro bets. Ortiz is being investigated for two pitches thrown by the right-hander that received higher activity than usual during his starts at Seattle on June 15 and against St. Louis on June 27. The gambling activity on the pitches was flagged by a betting-integrity firm and forwarded to MLB. Article content 'The evidence that prop betting is harming athletics in Ohio is reaching critical mass. First, there were threats on Ohio athletes, and now two high-profile Ohio professional athletes have been suspended by Major League Baseball as part of a 'sports betting investigation,'' DeWine said in a statement on July 31. 'The harm to athletes and the integrity of the game is clear, and the benefits are not worth the harm. The prop betting experiment in this country has failed badly.' Article content
