Folger
Folger pleads to multiple felonies in Newton Grove fire death
A Sampson County detention officer escorts Perry Randall Folger into the courthouse Monday, where he pleaded to multiple felonies, including murder. (Brandt Young|Sampson Independent)
A 48-year-old Sampson County man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after entering an Alford plea Monday to first-degree murder, arson, burglary and assault charges stemming from a 2024 fire death on Alex Benton Road near Newton Grove.
The defendant’s plea centered around the death of 69-year-old Harry Nathaniel Taylor and the assault of his wife, Elvin Franklin, 69, who lived at 3146 Alex Benton Road, Newton Grove at the time of the assault and fire.
Dressed in a brown jail jumpsuit, his ankles shackled, Perry Randall Folger stood before Superior Court Judge Henry L. Stevens IV Monday morning and acknowledged his acceptance of the plea hammered out between his attorneys, Walter Webster and Wally Paramore, and the state, represented by District Attorney Ernie Lee. An Alford plea, Stevens remarked in open court, is a guilty plea entered by a defendant in a criminal case who does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the prosecution has enough evidence to likely convict them beyond a reasonable doubt.
“And you accept this plea arrangement understanding that even though you are entering an Alford plea, you will be treated as being guilty,” Stevens asked Folger, who simply said “yes,” nodding his head in agreement.
If found guilty of the charges Folger pleaded to, he could have received a maximum sentence of death plus 496 months — death for the first-degree murder, 204 months for the felony arson, 204 months for the felony burglary and 88 months for the charge of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.
The plea took the death penalty off the table, but ensured that Folger will spend the rest of his life in the North Carolina Department of Corrections.
“I am very satisfied with the plea and the sentence,” Lee said after the court proceedings. “I’m really, really glad the family can finally get some closure, though this is something they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.”
The fatal incident occurred between the late night hours of Feb. 17, 2024 and the early morning hours of Feb. 18, when Folger, who, Franklin had said was a long-time friend of her husband’s, went to the Taylor residence to see the 69-year-old man.
An argument turned violent shortly thereafter, ending with Franklin beaten and Taylor, an amputee with only one leg, unable to escape from the mobile home which had been intentionally set on fire. Taylor died from smoke inhalation, according to autopsy results with a possible secondary factor being the blunt force trauma he received when Folger beat him with a long black stick.
See full trial coverage in Wednesday’s Sampson Independent or the online eEdition version in Tuesday’s Sampson Independent.