Justice part of healing for man robbed and left for dead

Edsel "Spade" Cooley said the mugging that almost killed him a year ago in his home in southwestern Winston-Salem doesn't really haunt him.

There was that night last week where he only got a few hours sleep because of the aching in his legs and shoulder. "I just laid there," said Cooley, 80. "I didn't get up or anything."

He has had to make numerous visits to doctors, and has to walk with a cane. And even with decent health insurance, he's had to pay more than $2,000 out of pocket.

But he is slowly putting the attack behind him. A big part of that process took place earlier this month, when the man who beat him with a crowbar, 34-year-old David Wayne Hemrick Jr., pleaded guilty in Forsyth Superior Court to burglary, robbery, felonious assault and being a habitual felon and was sentenced to 27 to 34 years in prison. "I feel sorry for him," Cooley told me. "He's going to be old when he gets out. It's just a shame he wasted his life."

I've gotten to know Cooley over the last year as I've talked to him about the crime and his recovery. He's a retired gas-station operator and fiercely independent Army veteran who got his nickname from a country-music singer of the 1950s. Cooley is a tough, kind and witty bachelor who's used all those qualities to get through the past year. When an old friend recently asked him what he'd been up to, Cooley said, "Bud, didn't you know? I got mugged and robbed and left for dead last July."

City police under Chief Scott Cunningham have made major progress in reducing the number of robberies, from 393 for a period roughly covering the first six months of last year to 299 for the same period this year. That's good. Nobody should have to endure what Cooley did.

On the night of July 17, 2008, he said he answered a knock on his door. Hemrick, the relative of a neighbor, kept saying he needed to talk to Cooley. Cooley finally let him in. Hemrick entered with another man.

When Cooley turned his back, Hemrick started hitting him with the crowbar. "I don't remember falling across the chair, turning it over, and I don't remember him beating me in the ribs," Cooley said. "When I came to, he was beating me in the thigh."

Hemrick told Cooley he wanted money. Cooley said the only cash he had was in his wallet, and told Hemrick where it was. As the robbers rummaged for the money, Cooley prayed. "I said, ‘Lord, get me out of this mess. I don't want to die in this puddle of blood.' I knew they intended to put me away. I knew he wasn't going to leave me alive because I knew who he (Hemrick) was."

Cooley yelled for help. Then, knowing no one could hear him, he shut up. The robbers must have thought he died, he said. They fled with $120. He called 911. He emphasizes now that he should have stayed on the phone until help arrived, but he was too addled from his beating. He hung up. Help arrived minutes later.

He's still working on the healing, both physically and mentally. He had two concussions, a collapsed lung, broken ribs, a chipped elbow, a fractured shoulder blade and collarbone, numerous bruises and an eye injury that still has him seeing stars. Doctors and nurses have helped him, as have neighbors with calls and offers of hot meals. "I told them anytime they've got food to bring it," he said.

Detective Michael Poe of the Winston-Salem Police Department built a strong case against Hemrick and a co-defendant, Benjamin Jacob Schenk. Schenk's court date is still pending. Cooley says that Hemrick was the one who beat him with the crowbar. Poe said there was no excuse for Hemrick's crime against "somebody of any age, much less an elderly victim."

In the courtroom, Hemrick's lawyer, Michael Archenbronn, presented testimony about the rough life that his client had as a child and as an adult, including drug abuse. But Lizmar Bosques, an assistant district attorney, said that Hemrick shouldn't be allowed any mercy. Judge Henry E. Frye Jr. agreed. Hemrick didn't get much leniency for his guilty plea.

Spade Cooley, escorted by his longtime pal Ronnie Swicegood, limped out of the courtroom and headed home.

He'd gotten robbed once before, at his Texaco station at South Main and Doune streets more than twenty years ago. That time, he'd sustained only a blow to the head. He had a pistol on him, he said, but something told him not to use it. That night last July, he didn't carry his pistol with him to answer the door, because Hemrick had identified himself.

Cooley won't make that mistake again.

"The mugging doesn't really haunt me, but if I hear a sound I get up and look to make sure it isn't somebody trying to get in."

Who can blame him?

■ John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at 727-7357 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com