Wednesday, Nov 9 2011, 7:43 am
Diane Turbyfill
Jurors took less than four hours to convict Danny Hembree of first-degree murder Tuesday.
The jury decided that 49-year-old Hembree suffocated Heather Catterton in October 2009.
Catterton spent much of her life as a foster child in Cleveland County.
Catterton’s family cheered when the verdict was read, but were quickly quieted by Superior Court Judge Beverly Beal.
Hembree showed little reaction to the decision that will either land him in prison for life or sentence him to death.
Catterton’s mother, Stella Holland, hopes jurors see fit to execute the man who dated one of her daughters and killed the other.
“I hope he gets the death penalty, and I hope they kill him,” she said.
The capital murder trial began about six weeks ago.
For nearly a month jurors saw gruesome pictures of two slain women – Catterton, 17, and 30-year-old Randi Saldana. They watched as attorneys pulled out clothes that Catterton wore the night she was killed. They gazed at blood-stained pillows and boots.
Hembree confessed to the killings to police in December 2009. His attorneys tried to convince the jury that Hembree was an opportunist who manipulated the judicial system.
Attorneys Rick Beam and Brent Ratchford told jurors that their client often confessed to crimes he didn’t commit. He used the tactic to confuse authorities and lessen sentencing on other convictions.
But the three videotaped confessions proved too damming for Hembree, and the five-woman, seven-man jury handed down the first-degree murder charge. Jurors could have found Hembree innocent or convicted him of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
A second phase of the trial will begin Wednesday morning in which the jury will hear more testimony and decide if Hembree lives or dies.
Hembree has not yet been tried for the killing of Saldana or Deborah Ratchford, a woman found dead in Gastonia in 1992.
During the police interrogation recordings Hembree also confessed to killing Ratchford. Evidence in her death was not introduced in the Catterton trial, but jurors did hear a lot about the brutal slaying of Saldana.
Saldana’s burned body was found in York County, S.C. less than three weeks after Catterton was discovered lying dead in a culvert about six miles away.
Hembree was smoking crack and having sex with both women the nights they died.
He was dating Catterton’s older sister, Nicole Catterton, when the teen was killed.
Nicole Catterton wept while talking to reporters Tuesday about her sister. She referred to her sister as an angel watching over her, and she said she never had a clue that Hembree would devastate her family forever.
The two years since Heather Catterton’s death have been painful, family members said.
They hope the conclusion of the trial will bring closure.
“It’ll never be over, but it’s peace,” said Holland.
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