Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Trial Begins In N.C. Murder Case of Hampton Woman
(AP) - A letter carrier who witnessed the abduction of a Hampton woman from a North Carolina parking lot positively identified the man on trial as her kidnapper Thursday.
Truitt Abbott of Greenville said he was on his route June 30, 2001, delivering mail to a CVS pharmacy, when he saw a man push a woman
nto her car and drive away.
"She was leaning against the window, looking back toward the store with a confused look," Abbott testified.
He called police from his cell phone, bu
t t
hey arrived after Ginger Hayes, 23, and her baby, Nicholas Hayes, had been abducted. The kidnapper had a "determined look" on his face as he drove away
, he said.
Abbott identified Andre Edwards as the man he saw drive away with Hayes and her son, now 3.
Edwards is accused of kidnapping, raping and killing Hayes. If convicted of first-degree murder, Edwards could face the death penalty.
Authorities contend that Edwards carjacked Hayes and Nicholas, drove to Rocky Mount and forced the woman to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Hayes and her husband, who was stationed at Langley Air Force, were driving home from a trip. Her husband and brother were inside the pharmacy when the kidnapping occurred.
Afterward, Edwards took Hayes and the then 1
1-month-old baby to a remote spot in Nash County, raped and beat the woman to death with a tire rim and left the boy for dead, authorities said.
The boy survived 90-degree heat in just a di
aper but su
ffered a severe sunburn.
C.D. Thompson of Nashville testified Thursday that he found the boy and his mother on a path near his home while walking his dog. He told the ju
ry that his dog stopped in his tracks, which usually meant a snake was in the path.
"This time, it wasn't a snake, it was a baby," Thompson said. "He was laying face-down in briars of honeysuckles.
"There were flies all around the baby. No sound. No movement. I thought the baby was dead."
Thompson said he also saw Ginger Hayes' body, returned home quickly and called the sheriff's department. When deputies arrived, they found the baby was still alive and rushed him to the hospital.
In his opening arguments, defense attorney Sam Dixon said
Edwards was raped by men as a child and that his mother also physically abused him. That, combined with a family history of alcohol abuse, left him too mentally disturbed to form intent, a key to a fi
rst-degree murder
charge, Dixon said.
Assistant Nash County District Attorney Keith Werner laid out the events of the abduction and what happened afterward.
**********
Die, n-gger die!
T.N.B.