Williams: Hard to imagine race played no role in Fayetteville road rage killing
In North Carolina, juries must reach a unanimous decision. In other words, every single juror must agree with the decision.
Many believe the quicker a jury returns a verdict, the more likely the jury will come back with a guilty verdict. In the murder trial of Ronald D. Nobles Sr., that turned out to be true. Nobles was convicted of the first-degree murder of Stephen "Trey" Addison.
Nobles killed Addison in a road rage incident on Jan. 3, 2022, on Skibo Road at the Cliffdale Road intersection. The fact that Nobles was responsible for Addison's death was never in question. Nobles alleged that it was accidental when he pointed a gun at Addison and pulled the trigger.
Understandably, Nobles' reasoning was not believable to the jury, evidenced by such a quick guilty verdict. If the shooting was an accident, why did he leave the incident scene without helping the victim?
Nobles wasn't convicted of a racial "hate crime," but it's hard not to imagine that race did not play a part in the tragic outcome. What Nobles did to Addison is a continuous storyline of the life of Black people in America since they were brought here in chains. Some whites say, "I can't believe this is happening." In contrast, many Blacks were saddened and angry but not shocked. Why?
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It is because this kind of brutality happens all too often. A couple of months ago, a white Florida woman, Susan Lorincz, killed her Black female neighbor, Ajike Owens, after she knocked on her front door. On June 2, Owens knocked on Lorincz's door to confront her about Lorincz allegedly yelling, throwing a roller skate and swinging an umbrella at her children.
Lorincz shot through the door, killing Owens with her 10-year-old child standing behind her. Will there be justice?
"As deplorable as the defendant's actions were in this case, there is insufficient evidence to prove these specific and required elements of second-degree murder," Florida State Attorney William Gladson wrote. "Given the facts of this case, aiming a firearm at the door and pulling the trigger is legally insufficient to prove a depraved mind."
Lorincz has pleaded not guilty, but if she is convicted of first-degree felony offense of manslaughter with a firearm, she faces up to 30 years in prison.
To discount race in how we all live, work and exist would be frivolous. Would Nobles have killed Stephen Addison, a 32-year-old Army veteran, so easily if he had been a young white male? The answer is obvious.
Racism is an uncomfortable subject, but we must acknowledge that it causes people to mistreat, discriminate and perform acts of violence against people who don't look like them.
Stephen Addison's child was deprived of a father; his wife has become a young widow, and his family and friends have lost a loved one because of hate. We cannot ever allow hate to win.
The citizens of Fayetteville answered decisively by assisting with Ronald D. Noble's arrest, and a juror of his peers found him guilty of first-degree murder. This time, the good guys won.
Troy Williams is a member of The Fayetteville Observer Community Advisory Board. He is a legal analyst and criminal defense investigator. He can be reached at talk2troywilliams@yahoo.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Williams: Did race play role in Fayetteville road rage murder?
