Appeals court upholds Hewson murder conviction

WILMINGTON -- A state appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Wilmington man who shot and killed his wife. Seventy-three-year-old Robert Hewson is serving life in prison for murdering Gail Tice at her home in Landfall in 2004. Hewson's lawyers had appealed his conviction, saying he didn't get a fair trial because of all the publicity the case received in New Hanover County. And because the jury had been allowed to hear a 911 call of his dying wife calling for help the appeals court decided he did receive a fair trial. The judges were unanimous in upholding the guilty conviction for first-degree murder.