A man was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a couple to death and dismembering their body after he pleaded guilty of the charges on Monday in Winston-Salem, police said.
Forsyth Superior Court's Judge David Hall, charged Tyrone Gladden with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of dismembering human remains concealing an unnatural death, according to NBC news. He was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gladden was suspected of killing Devette Carnetta Campbell, 40, and 35-year-old Gary Michael Craig Jr after their dismembered bodies were found behind the Willow Creek Apartments complex on Stage Coach Road on July 17, 2017.
Police find severed body parts, human torso stabbed 18 times
Police had gone to conduct a welfare check on Campbell. Craig and Campell had gone missing and hadn't been seen at their jobs since June 16. Police found human body parts, including a torso, hands, limbs of two bodies wrapped in carpet in the woods behind the apartment. The forensic report identified them as Campbell and Craig, who had been stabbed to death. Campbell was stabbed in the neck and chest while Craig was stabbed 18 times in the chest and neck, according to the autopsy report.
Gladden was suspected after he told the neighbours that the two were in jail, later driving Craig's car and seen removing carpet from the apartment and carrying it toward the woods by a neighbour in the night.
Unemployment, childhood trauma and mental health
Assistant District Attorney James Dornfried said Gladden told at least two people that he killed Campbell and Craig because he felt disrespected because of the way the bills were split-up at the apartment. He had recently lost a job.
Gladden's attorney, Vince Rabil, said his client suffered from a traumatic childhood ever since he saw a person close to him get murdered. Gladden was in foster care and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. "My feeling is that he just snapped over what to him was a lot of stress and strain," Rabil said in the court proceedings.
The district attorney's office and the police who had been working closely with the families of the victim had initially sought to give Gladden the death penalty before the case went on trial. Dornfried said after consultation with the friends and family, it was later agreed to allow Gladden to plead guilty and get a life sentence considering the evidence in the case, according to reports by the Winston-Salem Journal.
