Prosecutors said today that they will pursue the death penalty against a Winston-Salem man charged with killing his girlfriend's son in 2007.
Edward Matthew Montrell is charged with first-degree murder and was arrested last May in New Orleans by the U.S. Marshals' Violent Fugitive Task Force. He agreed to be extradited to North Carolina.
He is accused of killing Michah Gibson Jr., who was a 1-year-old when he died at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro in October 2007.
Police determined the injuries that caused Micah's death happened in a home on Piedmont Memorial Drive in Winston-Salem.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Martin said in Forsyth Superior Court that Montrell was babysitting Michah, who was his girlfriend's son.
An autopsy showed that Michah had blunt-force trauma and suffered a massive blow to the head, Martin said. His skull was cracked, she said.
Martin said the killing was "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel."
State law allows for the death penalty in cases in which there is one of 11 aggravating factors, such as a killing for financial gain, or an "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel" killing.
Montrell has also filed a claim under the Racial Justice Act. That law allows people both on death row or who may be facing a death sentence to use statistics and other evidence to prove racial bias played a role in them getting a death sentence.
Martin and Montrell's attorneys, Richard Ramsey and Marie Hutto, agreed that the Racial Justice Act claim wouldn't be heard unless Montrell is convicted and given a death sentence.
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