Update: Two murder suspects part of assault.
Two of the four suspects in the Aug. 3 beating of an inmate at the county jail are awaiting trial for murder.
Michael Lance, Darius Washington, Kwamaine Bellamy, and Timothy Cain II all faces charges of attempted murder, District Attorney Jon David said in a press release this morning. The four are alleged to have beaten Joshua Johnson 33, so badly that he was placed in intensive care at an area hospital. He is in critical condition, David said.
“Sheriff (Jody) Greene and I made a concurrent request to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation for assistance in this matter,” David said.
“We have the responsibility to protect people while they are in custody of our county jails,” David said. “This is especially true for people who are awaiting disposition of their charges and are presumed innocent. While it is understood that prisoners forfeit certain rights as part of their incarceration, they should not be subjected to assaultive behavior by fellow inmates. The District Attorney’s office will aggressively prosecute serious criminal activity that threatens the safety and stability in our correctional environment.”
Neither David nor the sheriff’s office have described a motive in the assault.
Cain was arrested in February 2021 for the death of Jacqueline Elaine Landreth. The Clarkton woman’s body was found near Chadbourn weeks after she was reported missing from her home near Clarkton.
Lance faces multiple drug trafficking charges as well as assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and possession of a firearm by a felon from April.
Darius Rashad Washington is awaiting trial for killing a father, mother and child in September 2019.
Washington has been in custody since he was arrested for the first degree murders of Alexis Ciprian Trujillo, age 5; the child’s mother, Nancy Trujillo Espinoza; and Leonel Ciprian Noyola; and the attempted first degree murder of Rafaela Noyola Jaramillo.
The family was gunned down in their home Sept. 7, 2019. Washington was found in the family’s Ford Fusion near an alleged drug house on Twin Pines Road. He was originally arrested on drug and firearms charges the day after the murders.
Bellamy was arrested in 2020 for robbery, then fought with Whiteville Police while he was being processed. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault on an officer, property damage, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
This is a developing story. Check back with CCN for more updates as they become available.
