19 and facing life in prison, Gaston teen makes court appearance
Almost six months to the day after getting out of prison, 19-year-old Darrick Lamar Johnson was back again before a Gaston County judge, this time shackled at the waist and facing two counts of first-degree murder.
A conviction on either charge would carry a life sentence without parole for Johnson, who finished a one-year stint in prison on Sept. 6, 2020, for larceny and gun convictions when he was just 17.
Johnson spent two minutes Tuesday before District Court Judge Michael Lands.
Police accuse Johnson, along with two other men, of the Feb. 22 shooting deaths of two Gaston County men, 50-year-old Christopher Brooks and 54-year-old Matthew Allison, in which drugs were apparently involved.
Gaston prosecutor doubts alibi of double-murder suspect
A Gastonia man man facing two first-degree murder charges seemed to blame another man for two homicides last week that appear to also involve drugs and money.
Charlie James Stiles, 24, made his first court appearance Tuesday in Gaston County District Court while being represented by attorney Larry Hoyle.
A second suspect, Jordan Cameron Moses, 29, of 1411 Gaston Way, Dallas, also faces two first-degree murder charges and an attempted first-degree murder charge in the case, but so far he has eluded police.
Stiles and Moses were at the Woodleaf Drive home of 50-year-old Christopher Brooks in the Crowders Mountain area of Gaston County about two hours before the Feb. 22 slayings of Brooks and Matthew Christopher Allison, Hoyle told District Court Judge James Jackson.
A three-day search for a man wanted for a double homicide in western Gaston County ended early Monday morning more than 60 miles away in a hotel in the foothills of western North Carolina.
Police from two counties and four agencies captured 19-year-old Michael Shane Barnes of Taylorsville as he left a Quality Inn off U.S. 421 in Wilkesboro just after midnight.
Barnes was booked into Gaston County Jail at 7:48 a.m. Monday without bond on two counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 18 shooting deaths of Robert Lucas Luke Gibby, 22, of Bessemer City, and Adam Kale Wood, 19, of Kings Mountain.
Gaston County Police have now charged two more people with murder in a shooting last week that left two men dead and a third injured.
Police charged Kaleb Isiah Carver, 21, of Taylorsville, with two counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 18 shooting deaths of Robert Lucas Luke Gibby, 22, of Bessemer City, and Adam Kale Wood, 19, of Kings Mountain.
Police filed juvenile petitions against a third person on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Carver was booked into Gaston County Jail without bond at 6:19 p.m. Monday.
Earlier Monday, police arrested Michael Shane Barnes, a 19-year-old suspect from Taylorsville, on identical charges.