A man sentenced to life in prison for killing a 90-year-old World War II veteran from Gaston County lost a chance to argue on appeal that his conviction was based on the trial judge coercing a verdict from the jury.
A Gaston County jury convicted Brian Thad Carver of first-degree murder in August 2018 in the death of Ray Jackson a year earlier. The conviction carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole for Carver, now 47.
But while jury members deliberated the case, twice they reported to Superior Court Judge Jesse Caldwell of being deadlocked on a decision regarding the first-degree murder charge.