Pastor settles with NC town after spending years in prison for robbery he didn’t commit
A Pitt County pastor who served eight years in prison for a robbery he did not commit will receive $4.4 million from the town of Winterville, a legal conclusion that came after his attorneys repeatedly argued he did not fit the robber’s description and his fingerprints did not match evidence taken from the scene.
The Rev. Darron Carmon settled his lawsuit against the town, Officers Donnie Green and Derek Ennis and the late Officer Emmanuel Armaos, whose arrest led to his wrongful conviction in 1994.
Prosecutors agreed to overturn his conviction in 2022 after a new investigation showed favorable evidence had been concealed, and last month, Gov. Roy Cooper granted him a pardon, making him eligible for $400,000 in state compensation.
“The Town of Winterville repeatedly denied any responsibility for Mr. Carmon’s wrongful conviction,” said his attorney, Abraham Rubert-Schewel. “Instead, the Town sought to cast Mr. Carmon as a criminal actor who was not in fact innocent, but someone who could have committed the robbery for which he was framed. And when Winterville community leaders sought to support Mr. Carmon, the Town blocked them from speaking at Town Council. These tactics are all too common.”
In a Thursday news release, Winterville rejected the accusation of wrongdoing in “the strongest possible terms.”
6’0 not 5’6
Carmon was a 19-year-old college student in 1993 when police in Winterville charged him with robbing the Fresh Way convenience store at gunpoint and taking $281.
Police arrested him though he stood 5-foot-6 with short-cropped hair and the Fresh Way clerk described a robber standing 6 feet tall with an Afro, according to a federal lawsuit he filed against the town. The suit also said Winterville officers hid fingerprint evidence taken from the Fresh Way when it did not match Carmon’s.
At trial, Carmon’s attorney admitted being unprepared and called only one of three alibi witnesses, court records said. He praised the Fresh Way clerk, the prosecution’s only witness, as “practically an expert in identifying people,” despite contradictions in his testimony.
Carmon’s mother fainted when the Pitt County jury convicted him, and behind bars, the pastor tried to kill himself by collecting and swallowing pills. He was released early in 2001 due to good behavior.
“No doubt in my mind”
In a news release Thursday, Winterville’s attorney countered that the store clerk testified “there is absolutely no doubt in my mind,” and that Carmon’s parents provided the only evidence about different heights, not the officers involved.
The town, about 85 miles east of Raleigh, also disputed whether the finger and palm prints ruled out Carmon as a suspect, whether they were analyzed before Carmon’s trial and who had access to them prior to 2021. It further argued that Carmon had been indicted on forgery charges at the time of the robbery, and that his alibi had changed over time.
“Ultimately, the insurance companies agreed to settle the lawsuit,” the town’s statement said. “Neither the town nor the officers paid any of the settlement proceeds, as the full settlement amount will be paid by the insurance companies. As part of the settlement, all parties specifically agreed that neither the Town nor the Officers admitted to any wrongdoing.”
Darron Carmon becomes a pastor
Out of prison, Carmon joined his parents in ministry, becoming pastor at Rebuild Christian Center Church in Winterville and Greater Village Gate Church in Lewiston. He adopted five children and started a pair of nonprofits, Sikono Mentoring and People Against Racism. He earned recognition for his outreach work from two North Carolina governors.
Decades later, his attorneys began interviewing old witnesses and learned Fresh Way clerks were required to place cash greater than $100 in a drop box, and that it was common at the time of the robbery for clerks to report fake robberies and take the money themselves.
But it took until 2022, when the fingerprint evidence surfaced in a police locker, for the state to finally admit its mistake by vacating Carmon’s conviction.
Reached Thursday, Carmon asked, “How hard does a Black man have to work to prove his innocence? Any decent people would say ‘We’re sorry for what you went through.’ Not these people.
“We have 4.4 million more pieces of evidence that shows the wrongdoing on behalf on the town of Winterville, despite them fighting,” he continued. “You have all these high law officers saying the same thing, and then you have little Winterville.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 12:33 PM.