In a rather unexpected turn of events, the convictions of two men charged in the murder of Nathaniel Jones, who is the grandfather of NBA player Chris Paul, have been overturned. However, not all is as it seems.
Superior Court Judge Robert Broadie ruled in favor of the men—Nathaniel Arnold Cauthen, Rayshawn Denard Banner, Christopher Levon Bryant, and Jermal Matthew Tolliver—in their journey to invalidate the guilty verdicts handed down in 2004 and 2005. The charges stemmed from Jones’s murder back in 2002, a tragic incident during which he was robbed, tied up, and beaten before suffering a fatal heart attack.
At the time of the crime, the accused were merely teenagers, aged 14 and 15, while Jones was 61. Notably, Chris Paul was already shining in high school basketball during that period and had committed to play for Wake Forest University in his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
During a hearing held in Forsyth County in January, crucial evidence and witness testimonies were reexamined. On August 8, Judge Broadie declared that the original guilty verdict could not stand due to the retraction of testimony from a vital witness, along with inadequate legal representation and questionable conduct by law enforcement agents, as reported by the Winston-Salem Journal.
The judge also highlighted how the DNA profiles “further corroborate Defendants’ claims that their confessions were coerced” and indicated that they “were not present at the site of the crime,” revealing serious doubts about the integrity of the conviction.
It’s worth noting that in 2022, Superior Court judges rejected these men’s earlier claims of innocence.
The overturning of their convictions doesn’t automatically guarantee freedom. Two of the defendants remain behind bars; Cauthen and Banner are serving life sentences after being convicted of first-degree murder. The other three—Bryant, Tolliver, and Dorrell Brayboy—were found guilty of second-degree murder, have fulfilled their sentences, and are back in the community. Tragically, Brayboy was murdered in 2019 in a stabbing incident outside a grocery store in Winston-Salem.
Following these developments, Attorney General Jeff Jackson has requested the state Court of Appeals to pause Judge Broadie’s ruling “while we assess the situation and contemplate further actions,” according to spokesperson Nazneen Ahmed.
