Sex charges dropped in NC bus stop slaying case

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina prosecutors have dropped a statutory rape charge against a Charlotte man accused of having sex with a pregnant teen who was shot to death while waiting for her school bus.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said Thursday he had no case against 36-year-old Royce Mitchell. The prosecutor said DNA tests showed Mitchell was not the father of Tiffany’s baby.

Gilchrist says there was no other evidence to support the charge without Tiffany alive to testify about sexual contact with her adoptive brother.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police call Mitchell “a person of interest” in 15-year-old Tiffany’s killing last month, but have not charged him.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)