Fayetteville road-rage murder trial: Shooter takes the stand, denies intent to kill

Murder defendant Roger Dale Nobles Sr. testified at his trial on Monday that when he drew his gun on a motorcyclist during a road-rage incident in Fayetteville, he had no intention of shooting anyone, and he believed the gun’s safety switch would prevent him from squeezing the trigger.

And, Nobles testified, he believed he was pointing the gun in a direction away from people.

But Nobles did squeeze the trigger and fire the gun. At that instant, the gun was pointed at the chest of 32-year-old Stephen “Trey” Perry Addison. The bullet struck Addison’s heart, lung and aorta and killed him.

The homicide was on Skibo Road as Addison and Nobles’ son, Roger Dale Nobles Jr., stood in the street and argued with each other. Nobles fired the gun from the driver seat of his pickup truck. Addison’s death on Jan. 3, 2022, was recorded by two video cameras. One of those videos circulated on social media.

Nobles’ attorney Coy Brewer rested his case after Nobles testified. The jury is scheduled to deliberate Tuesday and decide whether it believes Nobles’ testimony, and whether he is guilty of a crime.

The potential convictions are involuntary manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, “B2” second-degree murder, “B1” second-degree murder, and first-degree murder.

“B1” and “B2” refer to a chart that lists the punishments for crimes in North Carolina. B1 crimes are punished more severely than B2 crimes. State law says under some circumstances, second-degree murder is a B1 felony, and in other circumstances, it is a B2 felony.

A sentence for involuntary manslaughter could be less than a year; the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life without parole. Nobles is 53.

Trial day 1 Did Fayetteville road-rage killer discharge his gun by accident? Cumberland jury to decide

The Band-Aid didn’t do it

When Nobles was interviewed by a Fayetteville police detective in 2022 following the shooting, Nobles said his gun had discharged unintentionally because a bandage on his finger got caught on the trigger. A video of the interview with this claim was presented to the jury last week.

On the stand Monday, Nobles walked back that assertion.

He told the jury he had a bandage on his finger earlier that day because he had four blisters, but the bandage was gone when he and his son encountered Addison around 12:30 that afternoon.

Trial day 2: Shooter in deadly Fayetteville road-rage incident: ‘I did it’

Argument escalates to fatal confrontation

Nobles, dressed in a burgundy polo-type shirt and khaki pants, appeared calm and attentive to the lawyers as he testified. He said he and his son first saw Addison when they were in their pickup truck at a stoplight on Skibo Road at Red Tip Road, on their way to the Home Depot store down the street.

“Me and my son was sitting there talking, and this guy pulled up on the motorcycle,” Nobles said from the witness stand in Cumberland County Superior Court.

Addison had ridden up between the vehicles in the travel lanes to the front of the traffic at the light and was to the left of the pickup truck, according to previous testimony and evidence. When motorcycles ride in between the lanes, it is commonly called “lane splitting.”

Nobles said he rolled down his window and told Addison, “You’re breaking the law, sitting there in between two cars.”

Addison cussed him out, Nobles said, called him names, used a gay epithet and called him a racist. Addison was Black, Nobles is white.

Nobles said Roger Nobles Jr. began yelling back at Addison with the same kind of language, so he rolled up the window to try to stop the arguing.

He said he was nervous because there are lots of crashes on Skibo Road. He “was getting real scared and everything. I started hurting in my chest,” he said.

The Nobleses and Addison proceeded down Skibo toward Cliffdale when the light turned green. Addison “was still riding on the white line in front of me” instead of in a lane, Nobles said, then suddenly swerved in front of the pickup truck.

“I had to slam on brakes to keep from hitting him so he could get into the right lane,” Nobles said.

Trial day 3: Shooter in Fayetteville road-rage killing says gun fired because Band-Aid snagged trigger

They stopped at the red light on Skibo Road at Cliffdale Road, with Addison in the right-hand lane.

Nobles said his son and Addison continued to yell at each other, and then his son got out of the truck and confronted Addison, who was sitting on his motorcycle.

Addison pushed Roger Nobles Jr., Nobles Sr. said. That’s when the elder Nobles drew his pistol from the holster on his left hip to show it to Addison.

“I wanted him to see it so he would back off and both of them would stop,” Nobles Sr. said. He worried his son would try to hurt Addison, he said.

Nobles put the gun away, then brought it out again, he said.

He was not intending to shoot, he said. He thought he was not pointing the gun at anyone, he said, and he believed a safety switch on the gun was engaged and would not allow him to pull the trigger.

Nobles’ hands were shaking, he said, and they have permanent numbness from an injury he suffered when he worked at the Black & Decker factory in Fayetteville.

“My finger was on the trigger, so my finger was numb — well, my whole hand was numb — so I could have squeezed the trigger and made it go off.”

It was the first time Nobles ever shot a gun, he testified.

The trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. in room 3C of the Cumberland County Courthouse. The prosecution and defense lawyers are scheduled to make closing arguments to the jury, Superior Court Judge Gale M. Adams will then give the jury its instructions, and jury deliberations will get underway.

Senior North Carolina reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Shooter in Fayetteville road-rage homicide denies he intended to kill