ONLY ON 3: Soles back in court after sentencing issue

Sen. R.C. Soles was back in Columbus Court today. Judge D. Jack Hooks called for the hearing after seeing our report last week that Soles has a prior criminal conviction.

As we reported exclusively last week, Soles pleaded guilty in 1971 to failing to stop for blue lights and sirens after leading police on a high-speed chase near Fayetteville in 1970. That crime is a misdemeanor. But after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon in the August shooting of Kyle Blackburn at the senator’s home near Tabor City, Judge Hooks sentenced Soles based on a Type I prior offense record. Under state law, that meant Soles had zero prior criminal convictions.

After the sentencing, we reported the 1970 case, which apparently caught Hooks’s attention. During a hearing in Whiteville today, the judge amended Soles’s sentencing record to Type II instead of Type I. Soles’s sentence of a $1,000 fine plus court costs was not changed.

WWAY is the ONLY Wilmington TV station with a crew in Whiteville. We will have live coverage starting on WWAY NewsChannel 3 at 5 p.m.