NC jury hears from tipster, medical examiner, and son in man’s Home Depot death
Gary Rasor was “in reasonably good condition” before a robber shoved him to the floor at Home Depot in Hillsborough six weeks before his death, his son said in court Friday.
“Considering his age, he was getting around pretty good last time he was at our home in Michigan. He would use the stairs and hold his grandkids, playing with them,” Jeff Rasor testified at the murder trial of Terry McMillian Jr., 29, who is accused in Rasor’s death.
McMillian could get life in prison if an Orange County jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder. His former girlfriend and police and state investigators also testified Friday.
A key witness took the stand after lunch to testify about the autopsy findings. At issue is whether Rasor died from the injuries he suffered during the robbery, or if he died from his pre-existing medical conditions.
The incident happened Oct. 18, 2022, when Home Depot security cameras captured a masked man exiting through the garden center of the store in the Hampton Pointe shopping center in Hillsborough. He had three Ryobi power washers in a shopping cart.
Rasor tried to stop the man, but was shoved to the ground and hospitalized with a fractured pelvis and rib. He was moved to a rehabilitation center, but returned to the hospital weeks later, where he died on Nov. 30.
Nabil Haikal, an associate chief medical examiner with the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office, ruled that Rasor’s death was a homicide caused by complications related to blunt force trauma to his pelvis.
There were also contributing factors, she said, including hypertension and pulmonary emphysema.
Girlfriend’s tip leads to arrest
Hillsborough police didn’t have a suspect in Rasor’s death until January 2023, when a woman named Diamond Brown came forward with two videos and claimed a $10,000 reward.
Brown, who has a daughter with McMillian, testified Friday that she suspected he was involved when she saw news reports and recognized McMillian by his physical build, his Crocs shoes and the jacket he was wearing, which she didn’t see again after that incident.
Brown’s appearance in court was in doubt. She had been reluctant to testify, dodging requests to meet with the district attorney and the defense attorney, and didn’t want to be involved, she said.
Brown testified to provoking McMillian into an argument and recording it on video, “to take it to my advantage.” In the videos, McMillian admits robbing the store and pushing Rasor, but insists he didn’t kill anybody.
Brown said she threatened to turn him in, because she wanted him to do a better job providing for his daughter.
Fall changed Gary Rasor’s life
Rasor’s son also testified Friday, saying his father had worked at Home Depot for about nine years and always had a positive attitude. He had worked a variety of jobs in his life, Jeff Rasor said, from insurance adjuster and condo manager to entrepreneur. He most recently worked part time at Duke University on game days.
He also loved to ride rollercoasters with his grandkids and would take them to the amusement park, Jeff Rasor said. The last time was about two years before Rasor died, he said.
Jeff Rasor learned about the robbery when his stepmother called, he said, and was able to visit about two weeks later and for another week before his father died.
The judge sent the jury out of the room when the defense attorney objected to a question about Gary Rasor’s condition. She wanted more information about what the jury might hear, Attorney Kellie Mannette said.
In the rehabilitation center, “he couldn’t get out of the bed, couldn’t walk,” Jeff Rasor said.
“He was upbeat when we came in, and obviously, you want to see your relatives when you get an opportunity to do that, but on the other hand, not being able to [get] around like you usually do is always something that comes to mind … being handicapped when you don’t want to be.”
Rasor’s condition had “deteriorated” when he was sent back to the hospital a few weeks later, Jeff Rasor said. “He couldn’t walk, had difficulty breathing … laying in bed with the oxygen in his nose.”
Did injury or illness cause his death?
District Attorney Jeff Nieman’s last witness Friday was Nabil Haikal, an associate chief medical examiner and forensic pathologist with the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office in Raleigh.
Haikel said she was called to do the autopsy in December 2022, because Rasor’s death was “suspected to be caused or contributed to by criminal violence.” The report reflected her examination of the body, and law enforcement and medical records, she said, and followed standard procedure.
Most of her testimony focused on Rasor’s existing medical conditions, his long-term health outlook, and why major health risks were not found to have caused his death.
Rasor had “very, very serious heart disease and lung disease,” including severe emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, and heart damage that may have reflected plaque in his arteries and previous heart attacks, Haikal said.
He had a catheterization surgery for a complete blood vessel blockage, and doctors saw signs of a heart attack, when he returned to the hospital in November, she said.
Mannette delved into the possibility that Rasor died because of those existing health risks, and not because he was recovering from a pelvic fracture that he sustained during the robbery six weeks earlier.
In her cross-examination, she suggested the medical examiner’s homicide ruling was only because he was still in recovery from the fall, instead of considering more natural possibilities.
Haikal maintained that despite his high risk, she determined the fall was the main cause of his death, because of the additional burden it would have put on his heart and lungs. That would have exacerbated the underlying health conditions, cutting short his life by months or even years, she testified.
“Before the injury he was fully functional, fully independent, holding onto a job that was not a desk job, that was not a work-from-home job,” Haikal said. “It was a very demanding job, and in spite of his significant natural disease … he was doing just fine in terms of his baseline functioning.”
Haikal will return to the stand Monday to wrap up her testimony, before McMillian’s attorneys present his defense.
