Man who murdered nurse in Cary avoids death penalty with guilty plea
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A man who shot and killed a nurse during a 2014 robbery in Cary avoided a possible death sentence Tuesday by pleading guilty in a Wake County courtroom.
Daniel Scott Remington, 38, shot and killed 58-year-old Wendy Jean Johnson in the parking lot of Hyde Park Apartments in August, 2014.
Remington agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Search warrants filed in the case soon after the murder said Remington admitted in an interview with detectives that he approached Johnson as she got out of her vehicle and she tried to keep him from taking her purse before he shot her.
The warrants also said Remington led detectives to the revolver he used.
Johnson was a nurse to a special needs child by night. By day, she cared for her grandchildren as well as her own special needs son.
In court Tuesday at the sentencing hearing, Johnson's daughter described the horror of losing her mom, saying it is something she will never get over.
"I still can't believe it happened," she said. "People often say when a loved one passes away that it will get better or easier with time. I've learned that it does not get easier at all, not with a loss of this magnitude."
Remington has an extensive criminal history, including multiple arrests for illegal drugs.
