Man charged in 2 NC murder cases less than a year apart takes plea deal, gets 2 life sentences
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It took seven years for two North Carolina families to get justice, and the man that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) said was responsible for committing two separate murders less than a year apart has been convicted and sentenced.
According to the SBI, Kevin Munn took a plea deal on April 7 for the October 2017 shooting death of business owner Tommy Ellington in Vance County and the 2018 death of Nancy Alford in Warren County.
Munn was given two life sentences after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in both deaths.
Lester Kearney, who was a co-defendant, took an Alford Plea and received 10 years in prison for his involvement in the murders.
The SBI posted this statement on its Facebook page about the 7-year-old case:
"Over the past seven years, the SBI has had more than a dozen agents dedicated to investigating these cases. The SBI, along with our partners in Vance and Warren counties, extends heartfelt condolences to the families affected by these tragic events."
Tommy Ellington's Murder
Ellington was found shot to death in the driveway of his house on Stewart Farm Road. Ellington owned Quality Equipment, which was a John Deere dealership. The Vance County Assistant District Attorney said an autopsy showed Ellington had been shot twice.
According to The Warren Record newspaper, Ellington's wife called 911 in September 2017 about a man with a gun inside her house. The man left before deputies arrived. Less than a month later, she found her husband's body in their driveway around 8:30 a.m. The newspaper reported that DNA from Ellington's pocket connected Munn to the killing.
Nancy Alford's Murder
Nancy Alford, 76, was killed, and her husband, the Rev. John Alford, was severely burned during a home invasion on March 9, 2018. During previous ABC11 reporting, investigators said one intruder beat up John Alford. The suspects kidnapped Nancy, took her to a bank and forced her to withdraw money.
When she was taken back home, the house caught on fire. Nancy Alford was killed in the fire. John Alford was able to escape but was severely burned. He spent weeks at the UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill. He was a minister at Sanford Memorial Baptist Church in Brodnax, Virginia, when the incident happened.
On March 14, 2018, Munn and Kearney were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the Alfords case.
More than a month later, on April 25, Alford testified in a probable cause court hearing on the case. ABC11 was there when he took the stand.
Alford methodically walked the court through his being tied to the bed, to his wife's plea for the attacker to stop, to attempting to rescue her. He said he recalls Nancy shouting, "Oh God, No!" from another room, followed by a "kabloom."
He told the court that after hearing Nancy cry for help, he was able to break free, "only to be met by flames." Rev. Alford told the court that he crawled on his hands and knees beneath the flames, but he could no longer hear Nancy's voice.
