The final person to plead guilty in the separate murders of a mentally disabled Harrells man and a Duplin County cab driver in 2007 has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Rochael Delisa Dobson, 19, of Wallace, pleaded guilty this week to two counts of accessory after the fact to first degree murder in Duplin County Superior Court. The defendant entered the pleas in the murders of Earl Jeffrey Newton, 31, shot inside his Harrells home around Labor Day 2007, and Jessie Faison Jr., 63, shot to death in his cab in Duplin County May 24, 2007.

The sixth suspect in the murders to be sentenced, Dobson received a minimum of 90 months and a maximum of 117 months in the North Carolina Department of Corrections. She waived venue in the Newton murder case and consented to allow the Sampson County case to be pleaded in Duplin County. A seventh person, who has already pleaded guilty, still remains to be sentenced. All involved were teenagers at the time of the murders.

Dobson was represented in the Sampson County case by attorney Doug Parsons and in the Duplin case by Mary Susan Phillips. Judge Jay D. Hockenbury of Wilmington handed down the sentence.

Prior to the sentencing, Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee and Assistant District Attorney Robert Roupe detailed the facts of the case.

Newton’s body was found inside his home at 6935 Wildcat Road by Sampson County Sheriff’s authorities conducting a welfare check Sept. 10, 2007. The check had been made in response to concerns from Newton’s family members, who had not heard from the man in some time.

Deputies found Newton, who suffered a mental disability and lived alone, dead from shotgun-inflicted wounds to the head and chest. Evidence showed his body had been in the home for several days. His mother had last seen him alive Sept. 3, a week earlier.

Following the discovery, the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office received information in the murder that implicated several people, including Brandon Rice, 22. Days later, Rice was interviewed by sheriff’s investigators. He told them he and others planned to rob Newton and during the robbery, Newton was shot. Rice told detectives that two other co-defendants fired the shots that killed Newton.

An autopsy revealed Newton died from gunshot wounds to the head and chest, consistent with being shot with a shotgun and a handgun.

Rice said he was inside the residence during the murder of Newton and admitted to going back into the trailer and stealing money, clothes, shoes and a shotgun from Newton. Dobson, the mother of Rice’s child, told law enforcement that she, Rice and Malcolm Hargrove, 18, were at the residence when the murder occurred. She said Rice fired the first shot and Hargrove fired the second shot. Rice, Andre Pridgen, 19, and Marquis Fleming, 20, were involved in planning to go to the victim's residence, prosecutors said.

In the other murder, Faison was found dead behind the wheel of a cab he operated as part of Faison Taxi Service, having sustained two gunshots wounds to the head. He was found the morning of May 24, 2007 on Cool Springs Road, near Kenansville.

According to state’s evidence, fragments of a potato were found inside the taxi, “consistent with a potato being used as a silencer on a firearm.”

During the investigation of the murder of Faison, it was determined that suspects in Newton’s murder may have also been responsible for the shooting death of Faison.

A co-defendant told the Duplin County Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation that Rice and another co-defendant shot Faison. Dobson said Rice, Hargrove, and Anthony Kenan, 21, were at or near the cab. According to prior evidence brought during trial, RIce fired the first gunshot inside the cab, Kenan the second from outside the cab. Dobson said Rice threatened the others not to say anything.

According to prosecutors, Dobson’s cooperation and statements to law enforcement were instrumental in “bringing the co-defendants to justice.” Throughout last year, six suspects have entered similar guilty pleas in the murders, five of whom have been sentenced to sizable terms. One still awaits sentencing.

Rice pleaded guilty to two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Faison and Newton in February 2009 and received two consecutive sentences of life without parole. Kenan pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Faison in March 2009 and also received life behind bars without possibility of parole.

In June 2009, Fleming and Pridgen each pleaded guilty to second degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in Newton’s murder and were each sentenced to a minimum of 18 years, nine months and a maximum of 24 years in prison.

Hargrove was sentenced in July 2009 to a minimum of 32 years in prison and a maximum of 41 and a half years after pleading guilty to second degree murder and robbery charges in the murders of both Newton and Faison.

Christopher Smith Jr., 19, pleaded guilty in March 2009 to second degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in Newton’s murder. He agreed to testify against any other co-defendants if called upon by the State. His sentencing is pending.

Following Dobson’s sentencing, District Attorney Dewey Hudson echoed the sentiments he shared following the terms imposed on the others involved. He called the active sentences “substantial.”

“It is hoped that these pleas and sentences send a strong message that violent criminals will be prosecuted and this office will seek substantial sentences,” Hudson said in a prepared statement. “It is further hoped that this guilty plea, along with the other guilty pleas, will provide some closure to the victims’ families, their communities and the people of Duplin and Sampson counties.”

Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137, ext. 121, or by email at sicrime@myclintonnc.com.