Shooter in Fayetteville road-rage killing says gun fired because Band-Aid snagged trigger
Roger Dale Nobles Sr. told a police detective that Band-Aids on his finger got caught on the trigger of his Glock handgun, and that’s why the gun discharged and fatally wounded motorcyclist Stephen Perry “Trey” Addison during a road-rage confrontation in Fayetteville.
He also told the detective, “I know I’m going to go to prison.”
The comments were in a video presented to the jury during Nobles’ murder trial Friday in Cumberland County Superior Court. The video was made Jan. 3, 2022, in an interview room at the Fayetteville Police Department, where Detective Joell Arnold questioned Nobles about what happened earlier that day when Nobles shot Addison on Skibo Road.
Nobles’ lawyer, Coy Brewer, has previously said Nobles is asserting he did not intentionally discharge the gun. If the jury convicts Nobles, 53, of first-degree murder, he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Dispute over the dead man’s driving
In the video, Roger Nobles Sr. told Arnold that he and his son, Roger Dale Nobles Jr., were in a pickup truck on their way to the Home Depot store on Skibo Road when they first encountered Addison, who was riding a motorcycle.
This was at the Red Tip Road intersection, according to evidence previously presented to the jury.
The Nobleses stopped at the traffic light, and Addison rode his motorcycle between the stopped vehicles in the travel lanes to the front of the traffic. This was next to Nobles, who was in the driver seat of the pickup.
Nobles described Addison as “flying up” on the motorcycle and said he “about hit the front of my truck.”
Nobles lowered his window, he said, and he told Addison, “You know you ain’t supposed to be, you know, in between two cars on a motorcycle.”
Trial day 1: Did Fayetteville road-rage killer discharge his gun by accident? Cumberland jury to decide
He said Addison told him, “You need to mind your own business.”
He also said Addison started “mouthing off,” “calling us all kinds of names,” and accused the Nobleses, who are white, of being racist. Addison was Black.
“He was trying to start a fight,” Nobles said.
Roger Nobles Jr. was in the courtroom when the police interview video was played. As he listened to his father’s words, Nobles Jr. was hunched over, head down, with his face in his hands.
He drew his gun
The confrontation continued at the next intersection, on Skibo Road at Cliffdale Road. At this point, Addison had moved to the right-turn lane, and the Nobleses were in their truck to his left, in the straight lane.
It was unclear, in Nobles’ rendition at the Police Department, the exact sequence of events.
Nobles told Detective Arnold that Addison continued to yell at him and his son. “He was so loud through the windows, I could hear him over the radio,” Nobles said.
Other witnesses previously testified there was yelling back-and-forth between the pickup truck and Addison.
Nobles’ son got out of the truck and confronted Addison, who then dismounted the motorcycle to face Nobles Jr., according to prior testimony and videos of the incident.
Nobles Sr. said his son was telling Addison to leave them alone.
Trial day 2: Shooter in deadly Fayetteville road-rage incident: ‘I did it’
Some of the things Nobles told Arnold about this part of the encounter:
Nobles drew his gun from the holster because Addison was “running his mouth” and “I felt threatened, myself.”
Addison “was reaching for something in the front of his britches.”
“I pulled my gun out, showed him I had one, so he would go on, leave us alone.”
Addison pushed Roger Nobles Jr. when Nobles Jr. approached him.
“I wasn’t pointing it at nobody. I wasn’t trying to point it at nobody.”
“I said, ‘Go on and leave us alone, I’ve got a gun.’”
A 6-second cellphone video of the shooting, which was previously shown to the jury, showed Roger Nobles Jr. and Addison standing on Skibo Road, facing each other near the pickup truck, with Addison’s motorcycle in between. They appeared to be arguing.
Addison walked to the back of the motorcycle as the argument continued. He pointed his right hand at Nobles Jr.’s face, and Nobles Jr. raised his right arm and hand to point at Addison’s face.
As Nobles Jr. raised his right arm to point at Addison, the sound of the gunshot came from the pickup truck. Addison fell to the ground instantly — before Nobles Jr. finished raising his hand toward Addison’s face.
The video does not show Addison pushing or touching Nobles Jr. (though that could have happened before the recording began). It does not show Addison reaching for anything in his pants. The police reported no weapons among Addison’s belongings when they collected his things at the hospital after he died.
A Band-Aid pulled the trigger?
Roger Nobles Sr. initially denied to Arnold that he intentionally shot Addison.
“I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said. “I didn’t even have my finger on the trigger.”
The gun fired when he put it on the truck’s center console, he said.
“I laid it down on its side, and it went off. I did not mean for it to go off,” Nobles told Arnold.
His finger had two Band-Aid type bandages on it because he had burned it, he said, and one caught the trigger. He described the gun as having an “easy trigger” — easy to pull.
Arnold gave no credence to Nobles’ story.
“A bandaid didn’t cause this,” Arnold said. “Nothing else caused this but you.”
Finally, Nobles relented.
He said he saw Addison push his son, his son fell backward, then his mind went blank.
“And I pulled the gun out and shot him.” Nobles said. “I just aimed it and shot.”
He said he wasn’t trying to hit Addison.
But he did.
North Carolina Associate Chief Medical Examiner Susan Venuti testified Friday that the hollow-point bullet — one designed to spread open when striking a target in order to maximize damage — struck Addison in the left side of his chest near the midline. It fragmented and went through Addison’s heart, aorta and a lung, she said.
“He wouldn’t die immediately,” Venuti said, but would fall unconscious and die soon due to difficulty breathing and blood loss.
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: Road-rage murder defendant says Band-Aid pulled trigger
