THE MURDER OF EMILY HADDOCK

LEWIS LOFLIN

Vass, North Carolina

According to local press reports, on Sept. 21, 2007 Emily Haddock was home from school with strep throat. When her grandfather came to check on her, she was lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

According to police reports she was shot twice, once in the mouth and once in the back of her head. Later autopsy reports it was two .22 caliber bullets. The bullets were fired from a stolen handgun and a gang of five feral black males were arrested for the murder.

Five young black men were arrested and charged with murder. Van Roger Smith, 16, Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, 19, Michael Graham Currie, 18, Perry Ross Schiro, 19 and Ryan Jermar White, 18 broke into Emily's house reportedly to rob it. From what I read of the coroner's report, she was shot in her face, shattering her jaw and tongue.

Unlike the murder of Derrion Albert in Chicago, this tragedy got no national press coverage. Derrion was black and murdered by fellow blacks; Emily was white murdered by blacks. A clear double-standard. Derrion was the poster boy for violence against inner city youth, Emily was nothing to the liberal press with a race agenda.

A compilation of Pilot news articles by Lewis Loflin reveals plea bargains for the killers and failure to report in the Press.

The Pilot May 15, 2009:

First-degree death penalty trials for the accused killers of Emily Haddock were set Thursday for the first trial session next year. Superior Court Judge Paul G. Gessner could not set an exact date for the trial to begin...Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, 19, and Michael Graham Currie, 18, both of Cameron, face first-degree murder charges in the case. Ryan Jermar White, 18, of Sanford, Van Roger Smith Jr., 16, and Perry Ross Schiro, 19, both of Cameron, have also been charged in the case, but none of them are facing the death penalty.

Emily Elizabeth Haddock was home sick from school when, according to the charges, the three teens broke into her home at 6988 Marks Road and shot her several times with a small-caliber handgun. Deputies called it a "brutal shooting." "There were no cars in the driveway," he (police) said. "Then they go in and, boom, there she is. They still didn't have to shoot her."

The gun had been stolen from a Harnett County home the night before the murder. Harnett County officers recovered the firearm in the trunk of a car they stopped in the Carolina Hills area of Harnett County on Monday afternoon.

Police said that deputies searched the vehicle when they saw that it had stolen tags. They charged Parry Ross Schiro, 19, of Cameron, with possession of the stolen firearm as well as several other offenses. Police wouldn't say what other evidence led investigators to these three teens, saying only that they followed several leads.

If they had been in prison where they should have been then this would have been prevented. Liberals will blame white racism or bad upbringing for this too. Now it will be 2010 before this gang goes before a jury.

The community of Vass isn't Southside Chicago and two years later the case is almost unknown even though far more brutal than the Derrion Albert case. Where has the press been on this one? Google Emily Haddock and almost nothing appears on her outside of blogs such as Stormfront.org. I only found out about it myself from a video clip on YouTube.

Is this a race issue? Yes it is, because the press makes it a race issue. The national press blacked-out this story along with the Christian/Newsom murders in Knoxville earlier in the year. The victims were all white, the killers all black.

If the races had been reversed in both cases it would be national headlines; just being white killers would create a feeding frenzy in the left-wing press. Where are Emily Haddock's civil rights?

Michael Graham Currie is one of five black men charged. The others are: Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, who was 19 at the time; Van Roger Smith Jr., who was 16; Perry Ross Schiro, who was 19; and Ryan Jermar White, who was 18. Most were already on probation or had earlier convictions suspended and let loose.

The problem for North Carolina is the so-called civil rights community has brought pressure on the State to curb the severity and in their view disproportionate number of sentences on blacks. Like Virginia with similar statistics blacks males commit a massive amount of crime, but that's not the point. It's racism merely because they are black, guilt be damned.

Defendant Currie's lawyer Tony Buzzard made the point in January 2010 that he was ready to play the race card. To quote one report, "Buzzard said the issue of the Racial Justice Act must be addressed by the court. The law prohibits seeking or imposing a death sentence on the basis of race."

The state was seeking the death penalty for Currie and Harrison...while Schiro, White and Smith will not face the death penalty if convicted. Smith is too young to qualify for the death penalty, and prosecutors have said they won't seek it for White. Deputies have said White was not present when Emily was killed. The state told a Superior Court judge in February 2008 that it would not try Schiro capitally.

From the report:

SUMMARY AND INTERPRETATION: This was a 12 year old girl who was found deceased in her residence, shot during a break-in. Autopsy revealed two gunshot wounds. One involving the face entering in the lower lip, fracturing the mandible and damaging the tongue. The other entered in the left superior parietal area of the head, damaged skull and brain before exiting through the cheek. These wounds were, in my opinion, the cause of her death.

Perry Schiro has felony convictions for possession of stolen goods and possession of a controlled substance. Both of those convictions came in April. He also has several misdemeanor convictions for assault. Schiro, along with Harrison and Currie, could face the death penalty if convicted. The gun used in Haddock's murder had been found in the trunk of Schiro's car, and investigators said they had found information appearing to link him with other suspects in the case -- other evidence indicates that neither Schiro nor White was among those who broke into the Haddock home when she was killed Sept. 21."

Later Perry Ross Schiro was arrested for the attack of Jason Michael Phillips while Phillips was conducting his duties in one of the cell blocks, according to a press release. During the attack, Phillips suffered a fracture and lacerations to the right side of his face. Schiro, has been charged with felony assault on a law enforcement officer inflicting serious injury. His bail on has been set at $50,000. Schiro has been in jail since his arrest in September 2007 on the murder charge. The gun used in Haddock's murder was found in the trunk of Schiro's car.

From other reports (not The Pilot) on the five accused killers we get the usual:

Three of the suspects were given suspended sentences for other earlier crimes and were free on probation at the time of the murder and two were repeat probation violators. At the time of the murder, Mr. Harrison was serving a concurrent 36-month suspended sentence, which he received in February 2006 for four burglary convictions.

Mr. Currie is serving a concurrent suspended sentence for six crimes: Trespassing, simple assault, possession of stolen goods, unauthorized use of conveyance, breaking and entering and larceny. Mr. Schiro is serving a concurrent suspended sentence for five crimes: Assault, two counts of simple assault, possession of Schedule VI drug and possession of stolen goods.

The killers of Emily Haddock

Total Fiasco

Turns out none of the thugs will face the death penalty. One got life supposedly without parole, one walked with time served, one got less than 7 years, with parole the other two could be out in less than 10 years.

Currie
October 13, 2010: "Currie shot Haddock in the mouth and the top of the head with a stolen .22-caliber pistol, according to his admission in an earlier hearing. His proffer included a new claim - not made previously in any other statements by Currie and others - that he'd told Shiro the gun he was giving him had been used to kill Haddock." So says the Pilot Online.

Thus all the others were cleared of murder and copped plea deals of their own. After three years this is the result. Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger claims this was done for the family and with their consent. Then it was revealed they had no case for a death penalty because of conflicting testimony between the five accused thugs. No, it's about race.

August 11, 2010: The admitted killer of 12-year-old Emily Haddock asked her family to forgive him Tuesday before he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. "First I would like to apologize to the victim's family, the DA, and all I have hurt," Michael Graham Currie said in Moore County Superior Court. "I am not cruel or anything like that. The only thing I am asking for is the solitude of forgiveness. If you will grant me that, I will greatly appreciate it."

An earlier plea deal had fallen apart, this one stuck.

Smith
October 31, 2010: Van Roger Smith Jr., 19, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Emily Haddock on Sept. 11, 2007. Judge James Bell sentenced Smith to serve 58 to 79 months in prison. That's less than 7 years.

Shiro
Perry Ross Shiro, was served with a new charge. The Moore County Grand Jury indicted Shiro as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in the killing of 12-year-old Emily Haddock. His lawyer noted, "You can't be both a principal and an accessory." It was reported he left the court shaking his head. Earlier in August, Michael Graham Currie copped a plea deal that gave him life in prison without parole.
On January 14, 2011, a jury convicted Perry Ross Schiro of acting as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Schiro is still serving a sentence from summer 2010 for assaulting a corrections officer at the Moore County jail. A first-degree murder, which had kept him in the county jail for three years pending trial, was dropped the previous week after the state proceeded on a December indictment as an accessory - however he will get no "credit for time served" since that was a different charge. Judge James M. Webb sentenced Schiro to 116 months (little over 10 years) minimum in the state prison system and did not recommend work release. That sentence will be served concurrently with his sentence on the assault charge.

Harrison
June 3, 2010: The state accepted a plea deal late today with one of the suspects charged in the murder of a Vass girl three years ago. Sherrod Nicholas Harrison was facing a possible death penalty in the shooting death of 12-year-old Emily Haddock. She was shot Sept. 11, 2007, during a break-in at her home. She was sick and out of school. Harrison pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree degree murder. The deal was an Alford plea, meaning he didn't admit actual guilt but took the agreement as being in his interest. Harrison was sentenced to serve 93 to 121 months in prison, with credit for time served, sentence to run concurrently with his present sentence. That is a max of about 10 years....

Sheriff's deputies ringed the room as Haddock's parents and other family members took seats in a taped-off section. For security, court was closed at that point with no one to enter or leave except in case of emergency... Harrison's mother was angry about the whole thing - while still extremely sad about what the victim's family has had to face...

"This entire ordeal has been a tragedy, not only for the Haddock family, but for my family as well," Sherry C. Harrison said in a written note handed to The Pilot following the hearing. "Out of the fear of not getting a fair trial, Sherrod took a plea. ... Those of us who were closely involved know this was nothing more than a false conviction."

District Attorney Maureen Krueger, reading from that document and during an earlier statement of facts to support his plea, said the five defendants had made a number of conflicting statements. Investigators had the difficult task of matching those statements to physical evidence as well as to each other, she said.

In one statement, Currie denied Harrison had been in the Haddock home - that matched the fact that footprints at the scene were not his. Records show cell phone calls between Currie and Harrison. That matched Harrison's statements that Currie called him to say he had run out of gas. Harrison got a can of gasoline and passed the stranded burgundy van (with Schiro and Currie) on the way. A second call told him to turn around. Currie left Schiro in the vehicle while he gassed up the van, the court was told.

Krueger described the gang's method as knocking on doors pretending to be lost and looking for directions. If nobody answered, they would break the door and go in looking for weapons and other valuables.

Emily had been in a back room, putting together a puzzle on the floor. She had spoken with her mother a couple of times that morning, unhappy to have to spend a boring day out of school, according to court statements. On hearing the intruders coming in, she apparently tried to hide in a bathroom and was in the doorway when she was shot.

"Defendant Currie, by all accounts, appears to have been the shooter," Krueger said. He had obtained a Browning .22-caliber handgun during a previous breaking and entering and brought that along, according to Krueger. Haddock had been shot once in the mouth and once in the head, Krueger said.

District Attorney Maureen Krueger later said the Haddock cases were 'very complicated':

"Initially, the defendants gave conflicting accounts of what happened and who was involved - including who was the person that actually murdered Emily...We couldn't corroborate the statements with any of the forensic evidence, and that presented huge evidentiary issues. There were also some legal hurdles relating to joint trials and with the death penalty."

The existence of alternative accounts among the several defendants could have led to many and lengthy appeals, with no end in sight for the Haddocks. Krueger worried that any death sentence might string things out for decades - as she said it had in another case some years ago...

So ends the case. The last defendant, White, got away with time served. The press was silent on this case outside the Pilot whose coverage deserves praise. There was a lot of bad feelings around this and there should be. Why were most of those thugs not already in jail where they belonged?

Until the press ends these double standards and looks into the violence from the black community and stops turning it somehow into white racism, then racial tensions will only grow.

According to The Pilot,

A few hours before Emily was shot with a small caliber gun, police say someone was spotted trying to break into John Lyczkowski's house about a mile up the road. The person was trying to kick in the door and pry open the window with a screwdriver, officials said. Lyczkowski said he and his family couldn't believe it when they heard what happened to Emily. "It was overwhelming to me and my wife. We were both hurt, because an innocent child was involved," he said.