Orange County woman accused of shooting mom in the head enters plea deal
An Orange County woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing her 75-year-old mother.
Paula Lee Decoteau pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Cheryl Garner Medlin at Medlin’s home in Durham on Dec. 12, 2022.
She will serve a minimum sentence of 15 1/2 years in prison to a maximum sentence of 19 2/3 years in prison.
Decoteau was charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, two misdemeanor counts of assaulting a government official or employee, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
District Court Judge Todd Roper dropped the charge of assault with a deadly weapon and one charge of assault on a government official in early 2023. As part of the plea deal, all of the remaining original charges will be dropped.
How it unfolded
Decoteau and her daughter, Angel Bowman, lived with Medlin on Spruce Pine Trail, on the line between Orange and Durham counties. Bowman — who died four months after Medlin — and her then-boyfriend, Troy Burns, were in the house when Decoteau started arguing with Medlin over the death of Decoteau’s husband.
Before coming home, Decoteau had drunk seven lemon drop shots at a bar with friends, public defender Woodrena Baker-Harrell, Decoteau’s lawyer, said at Wednesday’s hearing. Drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, may also have been involved.
Baker-Harrell, a public defender, said a friend who was with Decoteau at the bar testified that while she wasn’t incapacitated, “she was pretty [expletive] up.”
Bowman and Burns testified in 2023 that during the argument, Decoteau blamed Medlin for not letting her husband, who had been drinking, stay at the house the night he died from a moped crash.
Then Bowman and Burns heard a single gunshot: Decoteau had shot Medlin in the head with a rifle.
Bowman and Burns said in their testimonies that they tried calling 911, but Decoteau took their phones and forced them to stay in her bedroom while she paced and contemplated out loud whether to kill them.
Bowman and Burns said they stayed in the bedroom until Burns suggested he leave. He then picked up the rifle, which had dropped to the floor. After some time, Decoteau gave Burns and Bowman their phones back to call 911.
Medlin was still alive when paramedics came to the house but died at the hospital.
Reactions from the family, judge
Four family members came to Wednesday’s hearing. Jennifer Garner, Medlin’s niece, read a victim impact statement.
Garner said Decoteau was “mean” even before struggling with addiction and listed several of Decoteau’s actions that had “broken down” Medlin even before her death. Garner said Decoteau never expressed remorse for killing Medlin, even alleging that Decoteau said Medlin “got what she deserved.”
“My mother warned me as a child to stay away from Paula. ‘She’ll shoot you if you look at her wrong,’” Garner said. “And now I know she meant it literally.”
Decoteau twisted back and forth in her chair as Garner read the statement, sometimes whispering in her lawyer’s ear. She did not speak during the hearing, nor did she react when Garner turned and looked at her as she recounted “all the money spent and stolen from my aunt.”
After the statement, Baker-Harrell said Decoteau “felt responsible” for killing her mother, but beyond drinking at the bar, couldn’t remember that night.
As he heard that, Jacob Britt, Garner’s girlfriend, shook his head as he sat with his arm around Garner.
Garner accepted that Decoteau had a lot of alcohol in her system and may have blacked out, but she disagreed with the defense’s version of events — including the assertion that Decoteau lacked the mental faculties to form the intent for first-degree murder.
“She went down the hall, into the room, got the gun, came back and did it,” Garner said after the hearing. “She knew what she was doing. You don’t aim a gun at someone’s head with the intent to not kill them.”
Orange County Superior Court judge Allen Baddour addressed only the family and said “it’s not worth anyone’s time” to say anything to Decoteau. Garner nodded in agreement. Baddour thanked the family for attending and said he hoped they could turn a new page.
“I say often: We don’t do closure in criminal courts,” Baddour said.
Garner said the plea deal brought some closure — though it couldn’t bring her aunt back — and that she hopes Decoteau receives the maximum life sentence. The family agreed to the plea deal, according to Assistant District Attorney Kelley Gauger.
Medlin became a mother figure to Garner after her own mother died of cirrhosis nine years ago. She and Medlin shared a love for the band Queen, and Garner wore a shirt with the cover of the Queen album “Hot Space” on it Wednesday.
“Right before she passed away, we were able to play ‘The Show Must Go On,’” Garner said after the hearing. “So that was one of the last things, hopefully, that she heard.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that Paula Decoteau could face a maximum punishment of life in prison without parole. She faces a maximum of 19 2/3 years in prison.
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