Charlotte Criminal Lawyer Blog
An appellate court in North Carolina has denied the appeal of a man who was convicted of killing two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers, according to a recent report by WBTV News in Charlotte. The man is Demeatrius Antonio Montgomery and in 2010 he was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Officers Sean Clark and Jeff Shelton. The murders occurred three years earlier in 2007 at the Timber Ridge Apartments in East Charlotte.
After being found guilty, Montgomery was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. His new attorneys, however, appealed his murder conviction in 2011, asking the court to overturn the convictions for several reasons, the most prominent of which centers on Montgomery’s mental competence. 
After considering the issues on appeal, the appellate court denied the defense’s request, saying that Montgomery’s claims were without merit and that the trial court’s decision was correct. Montgomery’s attorney, Andrew DiSimone, says that he is currently considering the possibility of filing an appeal with the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Montgomery’s competency issues arose during his original trial. On three separate occasions Montgomery moved to have the court declare him incompetent to stand trial. The first two motions were denied by the presiding judge and the third motion was withdrawn after the district attorney agreed to take the death penalty off of the table. The defense presented testimony from expert witnesses who spoke about Montgomery’s silence and refusal to participate in his own defense: however, the appellate court found that Montgomery’s silence was likely the result of his own choosing.
Although is it not usually discussed, competency to stand trial is a very important issue in some criminal trials. If an attorney is dealing with a defendant with a history of mental illness, it may be beneficial for the attorney to seek a determination of whether the defendant is legally able to assist in his or her own defense.
North Carolina law on competency reads as follows: “No person may be tried, convicted, sentenced, or punished for a crime when by reason of mental illness or defect he is unable to understand the nature and object of the proceedings against him, to comprehend his own situation in reference to the proceedings, or to assist his defense in a rational or reasonable manner.”
Stanley Cohen, Hammoud’s attorney, believes that the sentence he received is disproportionate to the crime. Initially, Hammoud was sentenced to 155 years in a federal prison, but a federal judge reduced that to 30 years after finding the sentence grossly disproportionate. The reduction did not seem to appease either the prosecution or the defense.
These loans are backed by the federal government and all of the money must be paid back. Should student loan fraud continue to increase, Mr. Smith believes that the bust could be even bigger than the bust seen in the real estate bubble.
An “extraordinary event” is defined in the code as “a large-scale special event of national or international significance and/or an event expected to attract a significant number of people to a certain portion of the city.”
After an investigation into the incident, the police determined that a women at the scene, Andrea Endara-Paredes, was the mastermind behind the kidnapping attempt.
On average, it takes the team about 19 hours from the beginning of the team’s investigation to make an arrest. Their speed prevents the alleged criminals from fleeing the jurisdiction. Winterhalter believes that some of their success is attributable to the police department being more efficient at identifying suspects. He said, “The department is responding to the incident a little bit differently. There’s increased number of resources put into the initial investigation, different bodies from within organization are helping.”
In December 2007, Edwards, along with Young, issued a statement to the press in which Edwards denied that he was the father of Rielle Hunter’s unborn child, saying that it was Young who was father. According to Young, Edwards was to tell the press the real story once the baby was born. Young testified that he and his wife were no longer happy about letting Hunter live with them in an attempt to keep the press away from her.
Earlier this month, the 6-year-old received media attention when it was reported that after she had a temper tantrum at school, the police were called and she was handcuffed. According to reports, the girl refused to comply with her teacher’s rules and began throwing things off of the teacher’s desk. She sent the student to the principal’s office where she continued her tantrum. The student threw things off of the principal’s desk and turned over a small shelf that fell on the principal’s leg. The principal tried to calm her down, but she resisted. At that point, it was decided that the police should be called. The Milledgeville Police Department responded and placed the 6-year-old in the back of a police car and transported her to the police station. Police procedure required that anyone placed in the back of the patrol car be handcuffed.
He used this ruse to lure them out of their cars where he would rob and then rape them. These occurred in February 2010 in the high-end residential neighborhoods of Dilworth and Myers Park in Charlotte. According to officials at CMPD, Carter ambushed a woman as she was getting out of her car on Spanish Moss Lane. It was 1:30 AM and he clasped his hands over her mouth and demanded her pocketbook. He searched through her purse for money and when he did not find any he took her cigarettes instead.
An individual close to the investigation and the case told the Charlotte Observer that Edwards was offered a plea deal where he would only serve 6 months in jail and still be able to practice law, but Edwards rejected that offer. He said that he would take his chances with a jury. In a press conference, Edwards said, “After all these years, I finally get my day in court and people get to hear my side of this, and what actually happened . . . And what I know with complete and absolute certainty is I didn’t violate campaign laws and I never for a second believed I was violating campaign laws.”