Closing arguments set in retrial of man convicted of killing four

WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) — Closing arguments are set for Monday morning in the retrial of a man convicted of killing four people more than a decade ago.

District Attorney Jon David tells WWAY the prosecution called a final witness today before resting in Danny Lamont Thomas’s case. He says the prosecution then rested without presenting witnesses and evidence.

David says closings will start at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Columbus County Courthouse in Whiteville.

A jury convicted Thomas in 2011 for three murders in Chadbourn and one in Whiteville back in 2005. Jurors could not reach a decision on a sentence for Thomas, who faced the death penalty, so a judge gave him four consecutive life sentences.

But in 2013 an appeals court overturned the convictions ruling Thomas’s attorney should have been allowed to replace a juror who admitted she knew a witness.

Regardless of the outcome of this retrial, Thomas will remain in prison for the rest of his life under a life sentence for a murder in Durham County.

Thomas’s 2011 trial was one of the longest and most expensive ever in Columbus County.

Testimony in the retrial began Aug. 14.