Norfolk Junior “Fuzzy” Best will spend the rest of his life in prison, after a Bladen County Superior Court Jury upheld his murder conviction Monday (Aug. 31).
Best – now 72 — was convicted in 1993 of the stabbing deaths of Leslie and Gertrude Baldwin in their Burkhead Street home on Nov. 30, 1991. Mrs. Baldwin was also raped, and the couple was robbed of a significant amount of cash.
Chief Resident Superior Court Judge C. Ashley Gore on Monday sentenced Best to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus an original 12 years. The sentence was handed down using the Fair Sentencing guidelines that were in place when the crimes were committed.
Best was arrested days after the killings on two counts of first degree murder, first degree rape, first degree burglary, and armed robbery. Whiteville Police said Best had been hired as a handyman and yard worker on Nov. 30, the day of the murders.
He took “a roll of $100 bills” which he used to buy crack and alcohol that he shared with three women during a “cocaine binge,” District Attorney Jon David said after Monday’s conviction. His fingerprints were found on one of the murder weapons beside Leslie Baldwin’s body, and DNA from a sexual assault kit for Mrs. Baldwin matched Best.
He was found guilty in June 1993 and sentenced to death. It was the first time DNA was used in a Columbus County murder case, and one of the earliest in the state. The original judge in the trial was Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood, with Rex Gore prosecuting for the state and Harold “Butch” Pope and Edward Wright as defense counsel.
David and Asst. District Attorney Valerie Pearce represented the state in the new trial. Best was again represented by Pope as well as Assistant Public Defender Emily Byrum.
The case was originally moved to Bladen County in 1993 due to pre-trial publicity, and the Baldwins’ notoriety in the community. Leslie Baldwin was a longtime, popular local photographer. Court officials opted to retry the case in Elizabethtown, since it was originally in court there.
In 2015, Best requested retesting of the DNA as part of his ongoing appeal. David noted that DNA was “in its infancy and the results were not as conclusive as they are with improved technology.”
The 2015 results produced an even stronger match, David said.
Best’s attorneys hired a molecular geneticist who claimed the DNA in the original trial was “completely baseless”. The samples from the six boxes matched Best’s DNA profile. Media reports noted that there was a one in 490 trillion chance that Best had DNA identical to another person.
Best was on Death Row for 29 of his 35 years in prison, until the retiral began in August 2026. He maintained his innocence throughout the original trial and the following years in prison, even after the U.S. Supreme Court refused his appeal.
In 2011, Raleigh attorneys Mike Unti and Sharon Smith began representing Best, and discovered evidence that seemed to back his claims of an unfair trial.
Six boxes of previously unknown evidence were found in the unused attic of the Whiteville City Hall. Investigator’s notes, names of other potential suspects, and forensic samples were included in the boxes of evidence. Some of the misplaced evidence included swabs taken from the victims at the time of the murders.
The attorneys found evidence of other suspects who were considered by investigators, including one man who allegedly bragged to his girlfriend about “killing an elderly couple.”
The defense attorneys also argued that forensic evidence showed Best was partying with the three women when the bodies were discovered, while the prosecution said the murders happened 64 – 72 hours prior to the Baldwins being found in their home.
In 2021, the State Supreme Court ordered a new trial based on the withheld evidence.
“Despite the passage of thirty-five years, prosecutors were able to pull together witnesses out of retirement to retry Best on the charges again starting August 17, in Bladen County,” David said in a press release.
David noted that some witnesses had retired but returned to help with the case. He thanked the officers and agents for their dedication to come back and present testimony at the retrial of this case. “Without them, justice would not have been possible,” David said.
Pope said the verdict and sentence have been appealed.
