The murder trial against Eric Campbell continues Thursday at a courtroom in Granville County, North Carolina. Prosecutors say he helped his father Edward Campbell kill a local couple on December 31, 2014. Victims Jerome Faulkner, 73, Dora Faulkner, 62, and their two dogs were stabbed to death. This was all part of an alleged crime spree from Texas to West Virginia. Police captured the Campbells after a shootout on January 1, 2015.
Son Eric, now 23, must face the accusation alone because the elder Campbell killed himself while in custody as a pre-trial inmate at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The defense is claiming that Eric thought that the Faulkners were only going to get robbed, not murdered. Eric was too afraid to stop the killings, having been abused by Edward Campbell for years, the defense said. It was all the fathers’ fault. Nonetheless, the prosecution says that the defendant was culpable. They claim that Eric got money to bond Edward out of a Texas jail and aided his father during the crime spree.
On Wednesday, Michael Weary, one of the Faulkner’s neighbors, testified about seeing both of the Campbells in an SUV on December 31, 2014.
The defendant’s stepmother Holly Smook also took the stand on his behalf, saying that Edward Campbell was indeed abusive. She said that in 2014, he beat her and threatened to kill her because he thought she was having an affair. He was arrested for that, but son decided to bail father out of jail anyway.
“I told him there was a reason his bail was set so high, and it’d be a bad idea to bail his dad out,” Smook said.
Eric Campbell, who faces two counts first-degree murder, could get the death penalty if convicted. He has also been charged with first-degree burglary, robbery with a dangerous weapon, second-degree arson, and two counts of cruelty to animals.
[Screengrab via LawNewz Network]