NC woman’s spent a year in jail on a murder charge. Why both sides want her out.
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- Patricia Ayers was arrested in 2024 after allegedly fatally strangling her boyfriend.
- Attorneys on both sides said Wednesday there’s little evidence she was responsible.
- Judge Shamieka Rhinehart reduced Ayers’ bail to $2,000 secured.
More than a year after a Durham woman was charged with murdering her boyfriend, a Durham County judge lowered her bail to help her get out Wednesday, finding there is little to no evidence against her.
Patricia Ayers, 32, was arrested Dec. 8, 2024, at her Sarah Avenue home after police say she strangled 41-year-old Mikel Johnson, The News & Observer previously reported. Johnson died three days later, and her charge was upgraded to murder.
But Durham County Assistant District Attorney Michael Wallace admitted in court Wednesday he didn’t understand why Durham police charged Ayers. Instead, he and public defender Dawn Baxton argued, the evidence now points to someone else in Ayers’ household.
Officers were called to Ayers’ home shortly before 10 p.m. Dec. 7, 2024, after Ayers’ 14-year-old nephew called 911 to report a woman was choking a man , according to court documents. That call is now at the center of the questions about Ayers’ culpability, Wallace and Baxton said Wednesday.
“We believe that Ms. Ayers should be released,” Wallace told Superior Court Judge Shamieka Rhinehart.
Wallace said he hasn’t yet decided whether the charge against Ayers should be dismissed, but he argued he had an ethical obligation to ensure Ayers didn’t remain in jail in the interim.
“I have a duty to look at this fully ... and the state of North Carolina is going to do what’s right at the end of the day, but it is not the end of the day yet,” Wallace said.
What the 911 caller said
The 14-year-old caller could be heard being coached on what to say by a woman in the background of the call, Wallace said. Johnson could also be heard telling a woman to get off him, calling out her name as he did so; that person he addressed was the caller’s aunt by marriage, according to Wallace.
When the dispatcher asked the 14-year-old how old the suspect was, he reportedly could be heard asking his aunt by marriage’s wife how old his aunt by marriage was, then gave his aunt by marriage’s age, Baxter said. That woman is almost 10 years younger than Ayers, court records show.
The N&O is not naming the aunt by marriage because she has not been charged with a crime as of Wednesday evening.
Although the teenager initially said his aunt-in-law choked Johnson because Johnson allegedly insulted her child, he allegedly later changed his story to point to Ayers, and the teen’s mother stopped letting him speak to police, Baxter said. The teen has not been allowed to speak to the District Attorney’s Office or police since then, according to Wallace.
Johnson was found unconscious in the back bedroom of the home, with Ayers’ sister performing CPR on him, a search warrant in the case states. Ayers’ sister told police it was Ayers who choked Johnson, not her sister-in-law, according to the warrant.
Aunt-in-law dishonorably discharged
When Ayers spoke to police, she didn’t say anything incriminating, Wallace said. It’s not clear what evidence police had in deciding to charge her, or if police ever interviewed the aunt-in-law, who Wallace noted had left the scene by the time officers arrived. A search warrant in the case written by a detective states the District Attorney’s Office advised police to upgrade the charge against Ayers from assault to murder.
The aunt-in-law was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army for “similar conduct,” Wallace said Wednesday.
Military court records reviewed by The N&O confirmed this, showing she was found guilty June 6, 2023, of grabbing the necks of a sergeant and private first class in a February 2023 incident at Fort Bragg. She was also found guilty of scratching, kicking, and spitting on an officer and an Army investigator and disrespecting her superiors.
‘Justice for my brother’
Johnson’s mother, Mary Patterson Johnson, and Johnson’s cousin, Lashawna Patterson, were in court Wednesday. They told Rhinehart they didn’t want Ayers to be released from jail and asked why this evidence hadn’t come to light a year ago.
“Somebody needs to tell exactly what happened, because the whole story has not been told,” Patterson said through tears. “I just want justice for my brother. He deserves it. Because he was a human being.”
Rhinehart apologized to the pair for their loss, but said she could not let Ayers remain in jail if she wasn’t responsible.
“It’s important that we respect the process,” she said.
Judge lowers bail
Ayers, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit with her wrists cuffed in front of her, didn’t speak during the hearing.
Under North Carolina’s Iryna’s Law, Rhinehart said, she couldn’t give Ayers unsecured bail. She set her bail at $2,000 secured. If Ayers makes bail, she’ll be subject to electronic monitoring and may not contact Johnson’s family.
Iryna’s Law, which the General Assembly passed in November in reaction to the killing of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, forbids unsecured bail for certain violent offenses, including murder, according to the UNC School of Government’s criminal law blog.
When Rhinehart asked Wallace during Wednesday’s hearing how Ayers was charged, he replied that he’d had his doubts, but acknowledged signing her indictment in January 2025. Ayers’ previous defense attorney, who withdrew from the case after leaving her law firm, had argued her client was the victim of domestic abuse and acted in self-defense, Wallace said.
At the end of the hearing, Rhinehart warned Ayers to be careful while out on bail. If Ayers acquired additional charges, another judge wouldn’t hesitate to return her to jail on a higher bail amount, Rhinehart said.
But, she noted, Ayers deserved her freedom while the state weighed its next steps.
“You’re just sitting, loss of liberty, while they figure out what happened,” Rhinehart said. “And that’s just not how the justice system should be.”
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 8:03 AM.
