Men charged with 2016 double murders may face the death penalty if convicted

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman on Thursday said two men charged with killing a pregnant woman and the father of her children in 2016, could face the death penalty if they are convicted of first-degree murder.

"This case was declared capital a long time ago," said Freeman, who added that a new trial date for the accused men was set for January 2019, during a homicide status review Thursday in Wake County Superior Court.

Police on Dec. 3, 2016, charged Seaga Edward Gillard, 29, and Brandon Xavier Hill, 30, with first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of April Lynn Holland and Dwayne Garvey.

Investigators said Gillard and Hill shot Holland and Garvey to death on Dec. 2, in a room at America's Best Value Inn off Blue Ridge Road near Crabtree Valley Mall.

Police charged the two men after discovering the shootings were captured on the hotel's surveillance video.

“It was also learned that the suspects communicated with one of the victims via cellular telephone data during the time frame leading directly to the double homicide,” Raleigh police detective W.E. Nordstrom stated in a search warrant application made public shortly after the shootings.

Gillard and Hill had made arrangements to meet either Holland or Garvey shortly before they were killed, according to the search warrant.

Police found Garvey, 28, lying face down with multiple gunshot wounds in a second-floor hallway. Down the hall was room 220, where police found Holland, 22, dead from a gunshot wound.

Hill has been accused of shooting Garvey. Police say Gillard shot Holland, who was four months pregnant. Garvey and Holland are survived by two boys, ages 2 and 1, and a 3-year-old daughter.

Gillard was arrested Dec. 3 at his home in the 300 block of East Juniper Street in Wake Forest. Police used electronic surveillance to find Hill at a North Raleigh apartment in the 8100 block of Green Lantern Court. They saw Hill leaving the apartment on Dec. 4 at about 3:10 a.m., in a Honda Civic driven by his wife, Brittany Jenzell Hooks.

Hooks ignored police attempts to stop the car and fled into Durham County where officers used spike strips to deflate the tires. Hill fled on foot, but was arrested Dec. 8, by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Okaloosa County, Florida. Hooks, 27, was initially charged with felony speeding to elude arrest and later with felony accessory after the fact of murder.

Investigators searched the car and found identification cards that linked Hill to the burglary of a police officer’s home, recent armed robberies and other violent crimes, according to the search warrant. Among the items they found were more than a dozen firearms, two Durham police jackets, a Durham police sweater, four pairs of Durham police uniform pants, a bullet proof vest, a fugitive agent badge, a state corrections department badge, three pairs of handcuffs, three swords and three pairs of gold-plated mouth "grillz," according to the warrant.

Gillard was also charged with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree forcible sexual offense and assault by strangulation in connection with the sexual assault and rape of a woman at a Morrisville hotel in October, 2016.

Hill has not yet been transported to Wake County, a jail spokesman reported Wednesday. Hooks is in jail in lieu of a $1 million bail, the spokesman reported.

This story was originally published April 5, 2018 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Men charged with 2016 double murders may face the death penalty if convicted."