A second man was charged Tuesday with murder in the fatal shooting of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy earlier this month.
A Wake County grand jury indicted Alder Alfonso Marin Sotelo, 25, on a murder charge in the death of Wake County Sheriff's Deputy Ned Byrd, The News & Observer reported. The grand jury also indicted his brother, Arturo Marin Sotelo, 29, on Tuesday on a murder charge. The Wake County Sheriff’s Office had charged the elder brother with killing Byrd last week.
Byrd, 48, was a K-9 officer who had been with the sheriff’s office for 13 years. Sheriff Gerald Baker said Byrd was killed after stopping along a dark stretch of road late at night.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eric Curry has said that earlier that evening, Byrd had responded to a domestic call less than a mile away and then entered his notes into the system. When Byrd didn’t respond to several attempts to check in, another deputy was sent to check and found Byrd shot outside his vehicle with his K-9 still inside the vehicle, Curry said.
District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said last week that she would decide within 90 days whether her office would seek the death penalty or life in prison in the case.
