8/20/24 "The Charlotte (NC) Observer"
Questions about demons, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Charlotte murder trial
What do you think about demonic possessions? The supernatural? How about Jehovah’s Witnesses? During a unique Monday afternoon jury selection for the trial in a 2010 murder and rape that involved incest charges, those questions unleashed waves of potential jurors’ own traumatic stories. The questions also suggested the defendant’s arguments may lean into claims he and his family, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, previously made to police. When his cousin died, Derek Ward told police “a demon had her,” Charlotte prosecutor Kimberly Gardner said in court. The family didn’t call police first, she said, they called a church. Police say Ward raped and strangled his cousin, Brittini Ward, when he was 24 and she was 23. Ward was previously found mentally unfit to stand trial but is now defending himself, which is known as a pro se trial. He has spent 14 years in jail without trial since officers arrested him in May 2010. In court Monday, he wore an orange Mecklenburg County Detention Center uniform. An advising assistant public defender, Michael Kabakoff, sat next to him. An article about Derek Ward’s arrest in his cousin’s murder, published in The Charlotte Observer on May 26, 2010. Newspapers.com Answering questions from Gardner, most jurors said their own thoughts about religion wouldn’t affect their ability to weigh evidence. One said all the talk about demonic possessions felt “a little ridiculous.” Ward asked Chief Superior Court Judge Carla Archie to remove that juror. She did. Gardner also asked jurors about their relationship with rape, murder and mental health. Two women had been sexually assaulted, they told a room of strangers. And one man’s schizophrenic grandmother once tried to suffocate him in his sleep. TENSE PRO SE MURDER TRIAL Following an afternoon break, Gardner asked Archie to remind Ward of how to act inside the courtroom. He was “looking meanly” and “glaring” at Gardner while she questioned jurors, Gardner said, and he told the judge to “crash and burn, crash and burn, crash and burn,” while being escorted out of the courtroom by a deputy. Ward contended he was muttering to himself and said he is not a threat to anyone. He wasn’t even in handcuffs, he said. “If I didn’t have a very positive look on my face,” he said, “I’m sorry, but my life has not been very positive. I’ve been in jail for 14 years.” He also criticized Gardner’s questions to potential jurors. “This is a murder and rape case with facts,” he said. “She’s opening up Pandora’s box talking about demons.” The Charlotte Observer, on June 4, 2010, published an article about Dawn Ward’s arrest in her daughter’s murder. She was once charged with murder and incest with her nephew, Derek Ward. Newspapers.com Police, two weeks after arresting Ward, charged Dawn Ward — Brittini’s mother — with murder, accessory to a felony and incest in June 2010. The incest charge, police previously said, involved her relationship with Ward — her nephew. Dawn Ward pleaded guilty to concealing Brittini’s death in 2012 and served several years on probation. Since then, Gardner told jurors, she has attempted to kill herself several times. Jury selection will continue Tuesday. This story was originally published August 20, 2024, 5:00 AM.
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