JACKSONVILLE (AP) A former Marine Corps sergeant has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the shooting death of his wife in 2014. Local news sources report 36-year-old Christopher Michael Skaggs pleaded guilty to first-degree murder March 27 in an Onslow County ...

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RALEIGH (AP) A North Carolina appeals court says an abused woman can’t sue her local social services department over alleged failures that allowed her estranged husband to shoot her in the face and kill her parents as their children watched. ...

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State v. Wilkes (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-346-17, 8 pp.) (Richard Dietz, J.) Appealed from Catawba County Superior Court (Robert Sumner, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Even though, when officers arrested defendant, they still lacked probable cause to believe that defendant had ...

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State v. Madonna (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-321-17, 17 pp.) (Chris Dillon, J.) (Phillip Berger Jr., J., concurring) Appealed from Wake County Superior Court (Henry Hight Jr., J.) N.C. App. Holding: Despite defendant’s own testimony that she had lied to several ...

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State v. Mosley (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-323-17, 9 pp.) (John Arrowood, J.) Appealed from McDowell County Superior Court (R. Gregory Horne, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Although there was evidence of malice that would support defendant’s sentencing as a Class B1 ...

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Velasquez v. Sessions (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-163-17, 18 pp.) (Agee, J.) No. 16-1669, July 31, 2017; On Petition for Review; 4th Cir. Holding: A Honduran mother who illegally entered the U.S. with her son after his paternal grandmother had the ...

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State v. Broyhill (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-214-17, 30 pp.) (Rick Elmore, J.) Appealed from Wake County Superior Court (Paul Ridgeway, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Where a political consultant embezzled campaign funds, lied to cover up the embezzlement and then physically ...

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U.S. v. Davis (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-096-17, 17 pp.) (Shedd, J.) No. 16-4140, May 1, 2017; USDC at Charlotte, N.C. (Conrad, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A defendant cannot overturn her murder-for-hire conviction on a claim that the government manufactured federal ...

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State v. Cox (Lawyers Weekly No. 011-132-17, 22 pp.) (John Tyson, J.) Appealed from Mecklenburg County Superior Court (Yvonne Mims Evans, J.) N.C. App. Holding: Although seven hours elapsed between defendant’s arrest for driving while impaired and his appearance before ...

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Advocates for a North Carolina man imprisoned for almost 22 years for a murder he says he didn’t commit are still trying to free him, even as chances dwindle for a legal remedy. The state chapter of the NAACP is ...

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