Jurors in Catawba Superior Court took just one vote yesterday to convict Darryl Eugene Hunt of first-degree murder in the rape, robbery, kidnapping and stabbing of Deborah B. Sykes in Winston-Salem six years ago.
Stephen M. Butler of Newton said that he and his fellow jurors reviewed the evidence about an hour and 45 minutes and then voted.
"There weren't any who ever said he was not guilty," Butler said.
For Butler, the most convincing evidence was the testimony of Rodger Weaver, who said that he found bloody towels in the restroom of the Hyatt Winston-Salem after Hunt left there about 7 a.m. on the morning of the slaying."The key, in my opinion, was when he washed his hands," Butler said, "That pinned it on him."
Hunt, dressed in a charcoal-gray tweed jacket and wearing a collar chain across his tie, spoke briefly before he was sentenced.
"I'd like to state in open court that I am innocent of the charges even though I have been found guilty." he said " And there's nothing...."
Then, his voice cracked. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and they reddened. Judge Forrest A. Ferrell asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to say sir?"
Hunt shook his head, looked at the ceiling again, and whispered, "No, sir."
Hunt was not eligible for the death penalty because the jury that first convicted him in 1985 rejected the death penalty.
James E. Ferguson II and Adam Stein, gave notice of appeal.
Hunt, 25, of Winston-Salem, was charged with the stabbing of Mrs. Sykes on Aug. 10, 1984. According to the evidence at the trial, she was raped, sodomized and robbed of about $200.
Hunt was charged under the state's felony murder rule, which says that a person who commits a felony can be held responsible for first-degree murder of he or any of his co-defendants kills someone while committing the crime.
Ferrell told the jurors that if they believed that Hunt was involved in the rape, robbery or kidnapping of Mrs. Sykes or participated in the commission of the sexual offense against her, he could be convicted of first-degree murder. The jury found that he participated in all of those felonies.
Mrs. Sykes, 26, was a copy editor at The Sentinel, a daily afternoon newspaper owned by the same company that owns The Winston-Salem Journal. The offices for The Sentinel, which closed in 1985, were two blocks from the field on West End Boulevard where Mrs. Sykes' body was found.
The jury reached its verdict about 2:20 p.m. yesterday. It took nearly 10 minutes to get Hunt and all the attorneys into the courtroom and bring in the jury.
None looked at Hunt.
As Ferrell read the verdict, Hunt closed his eyes and hung his head.
Evelyn Jefferson of Greensboro, Mrs. Sykes mother, clutched her sister Jewel Shaw and cried. She leaned over from her seat in the second row and thanked the police investigators who handled the case.
Nelson L. Malloy Jr., a Winston-Salem alderman who was among the half-dozen Hunt supporters in the courtroom, sat glumly with his head in his right hand. He said later that the jury based its decision on race rather than evidence.
There were 11 whites and one Hispanic on the jury.
Mattie Mitchell, the mother of Hunt's co-defendant, Sammy Lee Mitchell, cried into a large white handkerchief and rocked back and forth on a bench in the fourth row.
Mitchell, who was charged in January in Mrs. Sykes death, is to be tried later. District Attorney Warren Sparrow, who did not prosecute Hunt but is to prosecute Mitchell, said yesterday that no date has been set for that trial.
H. Dean Bowman, the district attorney for Stokes and Surry counties, prosecuted Hunt, along with his assistant James C. Yeatts III.
Bowman finished his closing arguments about 10:20 a.m. yesterday.
Bowman summarized some of the evidence that he had not mentioned Wednesday, but most of his argument attacked Hunt and appealed to the emotions of the jurors.
Bowman described how Mrs. Sykes might have started her day. Then, he took out the clothes that she was killed in and laid them, piece by piece, in front of the jury.
"She put on this sweater. It probably felt good to wear it at 5:30 in the morning. She put on these blue Wrangler pants."
Jurors began crying as he spoke of the testimony of Mrs. Sykes plans to buy a house with her husband.
"Maybe she was thinking of having a baby. We'll never know," he said. "And you know why we'll never know? ... Because of that man right over there."
Then he asked the jurors to imagine what Mrs. Sykes was thinking as she was taken from her car to the field and then stabbed and assaulted. He asked them what she thought when no one helped, and as she died.
"What was Deborah Sykes thinking when she knelt on all fours, no doubt gasping for breath, and watched that man right there run across the field?" he said, repeating much of the testimony of Johnny Gray.
"Did she hear the morning traffic passing by?" he asked, the added quietly, "Did she hear me passing by? Did she hear you?"
At least seven of the jurors, one of them a young man, cried. So did most of Mrs. Sykes family.
Sgt. Teresa H. Hicks, one of the investigators sitting behind the prosecution table, wiped her eyes on the checkered jacket of her suit. Detective Randy Weavil brushed his eyes with his hand. In the back of the courtroom, Vickie Reddy, a member of Ferguson's staff, also cried.
Hunt watched Bowman but did not react.
Ferrell instructed the jurors on the law and sent them out to begin deliberating at 11:06 a.m. They returned with a question at 11:45 a.m., asking Ferrell if they could see a copy of the testimony of Margaret Marie Crawford. Ms. Crawford, 20, was Hunt's girlfriend in 1984.
She testified that she and Hunt were at the Motel 6 on Patterson Avenue the morning of the slaying, and that Hunt left before it was light. She said that he returned about 8:30 a.m. with grass stains on his pants and blood on his hands. She also said that Hunt told her several days later that Mitchell stabbed and raped Mrs. Sykes when he and Mitchell tried to rob her.
Ferrell told them that they would have to remember her testimony as she gave it. He declined to provide copies.
Several of the jurors were reluctant to discuss the verdict last night.
One juror, Robert Richard of Hickory, said: "We made the decision. That's all we had to do."
Butler denied that race played any part in the jury's deliberations.
"The first we heard about this case being racial was after the trial, he said. "It didn't have nothing to do with it."