TARBORO -- The Edgecombe County District Attorney's Office announced in court today that it will not seek the death penalty against a convicted sex offender charged with the death of one of six women whose bodies have been found in the swampy woodlands of rural Edgecombe County.
District Attorney Robert Evans told Judge Toby Fitch today in Edgecombe County Superior Court that he would not seek a capital trial against Antwan Maurice Pittman of Rocky Mount.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office last month charged Pittman, 31, with the strangulation death of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, whose body was found in a wooded area along Marriott Farm Road.
Pittman has been at Central Prison in Raleigh since his arrest.
The Rocky Mount man, clad in orange prison garb and flanked by his attorneys, entered a not guilty plea this morning during the court hearing.
Nicholson was one of six women that were victims of homicides dating back to 2005. A multi-agency task force formed at the request of the Edgecombe Sheriff's Office has been investigating the murders since late June.
Edgecombe Sheriff James L. Knight has not said whether Pittman has been implicated in the other women's deaths.
Three more women have been reported missing in the area since 2007. Christine Marie Boone, 43, and Joyce Renee Durham, 46, were reported missing in January and June of that year, respectively, while Yolanda Renee "Snap" Lancaster, 37, was reported missing in March 2008.
