Two Columbus County men charged with murder of Columbus County teen

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — More than six months after a 16-year-old girl was killed in a drive-by shooting in Columbus County, two men are now behind bars facing first-degree murder charges in connection with her death.

Armani Darrell Mason, 27, and Tony Larrell Mason, 20, appeared virtually in a Whiteville courtroom Friday morning on charges related to the January 22 killing of Autumn Spivey.

Outside the Columbus County courthouse, Spivey’s family embraced following the arrests in a case that had remained unsolved for months.

If convicted of first-degree murder, the two men could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Autumn’s mother, Summer Ward, said the months without an arrest left her fearing the case might never be solved.

“I just thought that it would never get figured out. I just thought it would be a cold case because I wasn’t getting any answers, and 6 months went on, and I didn’t think it would ever be; I was about to give up on, you know, finding out who did this,” said Ward.

Ward said seeing the Masons appear in court left her in disbelief.

“Taking the life of a child who, you know, was only 16. She had a mom, and siblings, and a grandma. It’s very devastating for us,” said Ward.

Columbus County Sheriff Bill Rogers said information gathered through interviews with people connected to the case played an important role in moving the investigation forward.

“Interviewing the people at the house, and talking, and I reckon some problems between them and some other people, so just talking to people and people talking brought us to the issue, just helped us out 100% with the case,” said Rogers.

Spivey’s death was one of several homicide investigations authorities in Columbus County have been working, including the drive-by shooting death of Antonio Maultsby and the home invasion killing of Whiteville fitness instructor Cynthia Hansen.

Hansen’s case prompted a $25,000 reward from the governor’s office for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Rogers said investigators did not pursue similar reward money in Spivey’s case because detectives believed they were already on track to make arrests.

“We had everything lined up with the investigation; it just takes time to put everything together and get your case built, so there was no use getting reward money when we know we’re going to make an arrest in it,” said Rogers.

Rogers said detectives continued working the case with the goal of giving Spivey’s family answers and closure.

“I just want to let them know that we didn’t ever give up and we worked hard to bring them closure to what happened in this case. We’re still, you know, investigating, talking with them, until we close it out,” said Rogers.

Ward said the two defendants showed no emotion during Friday’s court appearance.

“I think they have no emotions; they don’t care. I think just some people are just born evil, and I think those two are evil,” said Ward.

Both men are scheduled to return to court August 28 for a probable cause hearing.