Bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632
HILLSBOROUGH – The two men charged with killing a retired deputy and a store owner northwest of Hillsborough reportedly returned to the scene of the crime and were at the store when deputies arrived and taped off the area.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office charged Curtis K. White, Jr., 18, of 6420 Highrock Road, Efland, and Ladell Alverez Faucette, 22, of 5138 Apsley Drive, McLeansville, with two counts of murder for allegedly killing Alexander “Skip” Wade, 68, and Phillip Johnson, 52, Wednesday afternoon.
According to search warrant affidavits, both men have confessed to “involvement in the homicides.”
A source close to the investigation said each is pointing the finger at the other as the one who fired the fatal shots. Wade’s family members have said they’ve been told that each victim had been shot in the back of the head.
White and Faucette also were charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon for allegedly robbing Johnson’s store, Week In Treasures, and for allegedly robbing another store, Sam’s Food Mart, located at 6321 U.S. 70, Mebane, on Tuesday.
The two men made first appearances in Orange County District Court Friday afternoon, and District Court Judge Joe Buckner told the men that if convicted of the murders, they could be sentenced to death or life in prison.
Buckner told the two men that he was going to have them transferred to Central Prison to await trial for their own safety because of Wade’s relationship to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail. They are being held without bond.
Wade, who was retired from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, had walked down to Johnson’s store at the corner of Carr Store and Mill Creek roads from his mother-in-law’s home a few hundred yards away about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
When Wade’s wife, Linda, left her mother’s house about a half hour later, she drove into the store parking lot to pick up her husband, and when she went in the store, she found her husband and Johnson on the floor with gunshot wounds.
Johnson was already dead, but Skip Wade was still breathing. Linda Wade walked outside and was calling 911 when White and Faucette drove into the parking lot and asked her if the store was open, according to Wade’s nephew, Randy Wade Jr.
Meanwhile in response to Linda Wade’s 911 call, deputies rushed to the scene and found White and Faucette still in the parking lot, according to a search warrant.
Deputies became suspicious of the two men because when they looked in White’s 1993 grey Chevy Lumina, they saw change scattered all over the seats of the car. They questioned the two men who gave inconsistent statements.
“They said, among other things, that they had been target practicing earlier during the day with a .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun,” the search warrant affidavit said.
When members of Wade’s family heard about the shooting, they drove up to the store and they saw White, whom they recognized because he had grown up in the area, and Faucette, whom they didn’t recognize.
White was rocking back and forth and appeared nervous, said Randy Wade Jr.
Because White’s car was within the area that had been taped off as the crime scene, White and Faucette couldn’t leave.
An ambulance arrived at the scene, and paramedics loaded Wade into the ambulance and raced him to Duke Hospital. The family left the store and drove to the hospital, but Wade died at the hospital.
Earlier, after White and Faucette allegedly robbed and killed the two men, they drove away from the store after stealing the cash register, but decided to go back to search through their victims’ pockets for more money, Wade’s brother, Randy Wade Sr., said.
“It was told that they were going back to the scene. They forgot to get the money out of their pockets. They were too dumb to get it while they were there,” Randy Wade Sr. said.
After they turned around, they sped back in the direction of the store, and N.C. Trooper S.W. Foster stopped White for speeding 69 mph in a 55 mph zone at 4 p.m. He issued White a speeding ticket and a ticket for failure to wear a seatbelt and let the two men go on their way.
Foster didn’t know yet that the shooting had occurred just up the road.
White and Faucette then drove to the store, where Linda Wade was still talking to the 911 dispatcher.
Investigators were immediately suspicious of White and Faucette, but they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest them, so they let them go.
The investigators, however, remained suspicious so they obtained a search warrant for 5922 Allie Mae Road, Cedar Grove, which is the home of White’s father, Curtis White Sr.
“While there, consent was given for investigators to take the .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun for additional analysis,” the search warrant affidavit said. “White Sr. said the weapon belonged to him and indicated White Jr. had possession of the gun earlier in the day.”
Investigators took the gun for testing, and “Special Agent A. Tanner at the N.C. State Crime Laboratory verbally advised investigators that it was his expert opinion that the gun obtained from White, Sr., was the same gun that fired the shell casings recovered at the crime scene,” the affidavit said.
In the arrest warrants for both men, it stated that they allegedly stole $200 from Week In Treasures and $500 from Sam’s Food Mart.
After the men made their first appearances, Randy Wade Sr., said he was relieved that the two men had been arrested but enraged about what they had done.
“You get mad because it’s senseless,” he said.
