Bail was reduced Monday for a Supply woman accused of running her boyfriend over with a car and killing him in May.
Julie Ann English, 47, has been held in the Brunswick County jail on a $1 million bail since her arrest May 28 in the killing of boyfriend Michael Anthony Pate, 52.
On Monday, a judge agreed to lower her bail to $200,000 if she is eligible for electronic monitoring. If she's not, her bail will be set at $300,000. The defense had requested her bail be set at $20,000.
According to the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office, officers were called to 1913 Oxpen Road on May 27 at 10 p.m. for a report of a person hit by a car.
When they arrived, Pate was found dead underneath English's vehicle.
Officials said English sustained a cut on her face in an assault by Pate before killing him.
She was initially booked on a charge of vehicular manslaughter, but on June 1 she was indicated on a charge of second-degree murder, jail records indicate.
Brunswick County Assistant District Attorney Lee Bollinger told the judge Monday he was opposed to a reduction of bail.
In recounting the details of the death, Bollinger said English and Pate had a volatile relationship. On the day of the killing, he said, the two had been drinking heavily at Pate's birthday party. He said several calls had been made to 911 by both Pate and English because the two were fighting prior to the final call in which English reported a man hit by a car.
Bollinger said the last argument happened when English returned to the house after leaving with a much younger man to purchase drugs.
Bollinger said Pate questioned the nature of the relationship between English and the man.
As the argument increased, the other man got out of the car and began to walk away down the road, Bollinger said.
"He was thinking she would come pick him up," he said.
But instead, English got behind the wheel of her car and, from all indications, intentionally struck Pate with the vehicle as he sat on the steps, he said.
"She practically had to make a 90-degree turn," to hit him, Bollinger said.
He said because of the extensive injuries to Pate's body – among them fractured ribs, massive pelvic fracture, collapsed lungs and a broken ankle – the question remains as to whether Pate was hit more than once.
Bollinger said the prosecution is still trying to determine "if this individual was run over once or the injuries are incidental to her trying to back the car out" after.
The judge agreed because of English's long history in the community, her lack of criminal convictions and the promise that she could go back to work as a hairdresser at a salon in Shallotte, he'd agree to the bail reduction.
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