A years-long case involving a teen reportedly coerced into falsely confessing to the rape and murder of 11-year-old Salemburg youngster McKenzie Sessoms has been settled, with Sampson County and its insurer agreeing to fork out $2 million of the total $10 million financial agreement on behalf of its sheriff and some of its deputies.
And Sessoms’ 2013 rape and murder remains unsolved. (See sidebar)
Attorneys for Trey Jones, who claimed through his guardian that he was coerced into that false confession, agreed to settle his case for $10 million, with the state, county law enforcement and insurers picking up the tab, according to information released through Law360, a subscription-based legal news and analysis service which publishes hundreds of stories every business day covering breaking trials, court decisions, legislative shifts and regulatory changes.
Attorneys for Jones, from The Richardson Firm, PLLC, confirmed via email Thursday morning that the Law360 article was correct and that the “matter had been concluded.”
Patrick R. Anstead, attorney with The Richardson Firm, noted in that confirmation email that “the plaintiff and his attorneys decline to comment at this time.”
Court documents show the case was settled in late May, with Jones’ guardian ad litem, Charles M. Brittain III, agreeing to the terms, which call for the state to pay $8 million on behalf of former SBI special agent William Brady, according to a memorandum in support of a joint motion for a compromise settlement.
The other $2 million will be paid on behalf of Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton and other county law enforcement officers, including Chris Godwin and Andrew Worley, and the Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., through the county’s insurance. That portion was settled separately from Brady’s arrangement, court documents show.
Todd Minchew, risk advisor for the SIA Group, which covers the county’s insurance, noted in an email that the “portion of the settlement attributed to the county will be paid by our insurance coverage,” which means no money will come from the county budget or from taxpayers.
“While any settlement paid by insurance coverage will impact premiums for future coverage,” Minchew wrote, “the impact of this settlement specifically is mitigated by other parties sharing in the cost as well as the time element of the claim, itself, as insurance carriers only include claims activity within a certain period of time in its pricing models. It is my understanding that the impact on future premiums should be minimal due to these two factors.”
Settlement comment:
Godwin and Worley still work with the Sampson Sheriff’s Office. Documents note that Brady is no longer with the SBI.
“The courts ultimately reached their conclusions, and we respect those decisions,” Thornton said when reached by phone Thursday. “However, the public deserves an accurate understanding of how this investigation was conducted and the respective roles of the agencies involved.
Thornton, for legal reasons, has declined comment on the case throughout the pending litigation, but on Thursday was willing to open up, as he said, “to clarify a few facts regarding this case.”
”At the request of the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office, the SBI joined the homicide investigation and took a very active role. The interview that resulted in the juvenile’s confession was conducted and led by NCSBI Special Agent William Brady, not by personnel from the Sheriff’s Office. The same SBI agent did not electronically record the interview or have the juvenile sign a written confession. Those issues later played a significant role in the suppression hearing and subsequent lawsuit. It is important to note that, at that time, electronic recording of such interviews was not required by law. In fact, the same SBI agent who led the interview directed a Sheriff’s Office investigator not to record it because it was not required,” Thornton explained.
“Throughout the investigation, the District Attorney’s Office was kept regularly informed of the case’s progress. Based on the confession obtained by the NCSBI agent, along with an additional statement provided to the NCSBI agent, the case was presented to the District Attorney’s Office. After reviewing the evidence, the District Attorney’s Office determined there was sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against the juvenile. Accordingly, our agency, along with the NCSBI and at the direction of the District Attorney’s Office, obtained juvenile petitions charging the juvenile.”
Thornton stressed that it was also important to note that the Sheriff’s Office was not provided the SBI agent’s interview notes during the investigation and did not receive those notes until years later during the civil litigation process. “In fact, the District Attorney’s Office did not receive the complete NCSBI case file until approximately six years later,” he asserted.
The sheriff was also adamant that he wanted to clear up early claims that he had tied DNA evidence to Jones in written press statements, something he has denied from day one.
“I would also like to correct a claim that was made during the lawsuit. I never stated that DNA evidence linked the juvenile to the homicide. No such statement by me exists. While DNA evidence was collected as part of the investigation, I never publicly claimed that it connected the juvenile to the crime. Furthermore, I could not have made such a statement because the juvenile’s DNA was not even collected until weeks after the press conference,” Thornton attested.
How we got to
the settlement
The 11-year-old Sessoms was found raped and suffocated to death in her Salemburg-area home in 2013.
An investigation led to Jones, a Lakewood High School freshman at the time, who was charged in 2014 with first-degree murder and first-degree rape. According to the initial suit, Jones was interrogated without the presence of a family member or legal guardian.
He was jailed from 2014 until the charges were voluntarily dismissed in March 2021. DNA results eventually exonerated Jones. In 2020, a N.C. Superior Court judge suppressed the confession. Soon after, and nearly seven years after Jones’ arrest — prosecutors voluntarily dismissed pending charges.
Court records show Brady, as lead SBI investigator, and Worley interrogated Jones in 2014 and later relied on his confession rather than physical evidence to back his prolonged imprisonment.
Within the memo in support of a joint motion for compromise settlement, it shows that county and state law enforcement officers allegedly coerced a false confession from Jones to Sessoms’ rape and murder, noting that Jones was an “intellectually disabled 14-year-old” at the time of his interview, and was “separated from his mother and treated like an adult during the interrogation.” That memo also showed that the Jones’ attorneys alleged that officers failed to recognize or account for those disabilities despite “obvious signs.”
Brittain, court documents show, filed the suit in December 2023, seeking damages for the five years Jones was incarcerated and for the “resulting emotional and physical injuries” he received while behind bars.
The guardian ad litem brought deprivation of rights claims under the Fourth, Fifth and 14th amendments as well as state law claims, arguing the criminal proceedings lacked probable cause and led to Jones’ “unjust years-long incarceration,” the Law360 article noted.
Brady agreed to settle the claims for $8 million, a portion of which will be placed in a qualified structured settlement annuity for Jones’ guaranteed benefit. Of that $1 million is payable by the state and $7 million by the Lexington Insurance Co, according to the distribution memo. The state’s share is contingent on its funding availability.
To ensure maximum benefit to Jones through his life, $1 million of the settlement will go into an irrevocable trust and just over $4.1 million into a structured settlement annuity with payments directed into the trust, according to the memo.
The funds secured now are projected to benefit Jones at a sum of approximately $13.3 million over the life of the annuity, which is to be professionally managed for his sole benefit.
The memo made clear that Jones’ counsel and Brittain did not initiate competency proceedings due to the risk of permanent loss of certain of Jones’ rights.
Jones’ attorneys believe this could be the “largest civil rights settelement” of the Eastern District of North Carolina “in a malicious prosecution style suit where the plaintiff wasn’t convicted, the Law360 article reported.