An 82-year-old south Charlotte man serving life without parole for a 2019 double killing has failed in his bid to undo the case against him. Yesterday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals refused relief for Caldwell Cole, leaving in place the jury verdicts returned in 2023 and the life-without-parole sentence he is now serving.
The appeals court rejected Cole’s claims that the trial judge should have thrown the case out, that jurors were improperly instructed, and that the court mishandled an accident defense. The panel also declined to rule on a separate double jeopardy argument, according to WCNC. For now, the decision keeps the 2023 trial outcome firmly in place.
The shootings happened on Nov. 9, 2019, during a gathering at a home on Lytham Drive. Local reports identified the victims as Janet Elizabeth Scronce and Furahn Karren Woods Morrow, who died at the scene and at a hospital, respectively, according to WBTV. According to a news release from the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office, Cole was asked to leave the residence at 2740 Lytham Drive, went home to retrieve a revolver and extra ammunition, then returned and opened fire at the rear of the house and inside, wounding two additional people who survived, according to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office…