Toilet tank lid used as weapon to kill NC man found dead in a home, police say

Joe Marusak
·1 min read

Police charged a 57-year-old man with first-degree murder after officers found a 26-year-old man unconscious and bleeding from his head in a Gastonia home Thursday.

Police believe the victim, 26-year-old Brandon Patty, was hit with a toilet tank lid by a man who also lived in the home in the 2900 block of Fraley Church Road, according to a Gastonia Police Department news release Friday.

Police charged a 57-year-old man with first-degree murder after officers found a 26-year-old man unconscious and bleeding from his head in a Gastonia NC home.
Police charged a 57-year-old man with first-degree murder after officers found a 26-year-old man unconscious and bleeding from his head in a Gastonia NC home.

Police had sent the news release via an online link in an email. Later Friday, police removed from the news release their references to the toilet lid and that the men both lived in the home.

A police spokesman didn’t immediately return a call from The Charlotte Observer to explain why the references were removed.

Homicide detectives had arrived at the home just before 5:30 p.m. Thursday, after a caller reported a bleeding and unconscious man, according to police.

Officers arrested James Thomas Robinson and took him to the Gaston County Jail, where he was charged and is being held without bond.