What search warrants reveal about murder charge in Raleigh man’s beating
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- William Hala was fatally beaten in July 2025, and Jonathan Lee was arrested in his death.
- Search warrants allege prior choking and wrestling incidents between the pair.
- Hala had just turned 24 and worked with Lee at a Raleigh restaurant.
Half a year after a Raleigh man was fatally beaten, newly released search warrants allege the man accused of attacking him had done so before.
William Hala, 24, died July 8 after he was found seriously injured outside an apartment building off New Bern Avenue, The News & Observer previously reported. Jonathan Lee, 29, was charged with murder in his death.
Lee, who appeared to have a black eye in his police mugshot, is believed to have fatally beaten Hala during a fight that was apparently common for the pair, according to a search warrant. Lee “previously choked and wrestled with the victim when they were both intoxicated,” and police found videos and photos of Lee holding Hala in a chokehold during previous incidents, a detective wrote.
Cell phone messages were also seen from Lee to someone police interviewed in which Lee states, ‘We never talk of this night these disposable camera pictures of his headlock disappear,’” a search warrant states. “This message is a directive from Lee to the interviewee to destroy a photograph that the interviewee took of Lee holding the victim in a headlock and restraining him on the ground in March 2025.”
The text had been sent March 16, 2025, “shortly after” the incident, according to the warrant.
Police were called to Lee’s girlfriend’s apartment just after 4 a.m. July 8, 2025, after several 911 callers reported hearing a man yelling for help.
“He was yelling for a while,” one of the callers said in a recording released upon a public-records request from The N&O. “He was rolling around in the dirt. I heard like slapping noises and stuff. I can’t see another person; it’s really dark out.”
Officers found Hala with “extensive trauma to his face and head” on the sidewalk in front of the apartment building, according to a search warrant. He was pronounced dead at WakeMed about an hour later.
Lee’s girlfriend told police the trio had gone out to celebrate Hala’s birthday the evening before at a pool, an amusement park and a bar and that they’d been at her apartment since about 2 a.m. All three had been drinking since noon the previous day, according to a search warrant.
Hala, who was found in the area of a flowerbed, had mulch and dirt on him, while Lee “was covered in a layer of dirt on his exposed skin, including his legs, chest and back,” a detective wrote.
“Lee had a swollen and discolored bump below his right eye and swollen right hand and first three fingers on the same hand,” the detective said in a search warrant. “The swollen hand was consistent with injuries from punching a hard object, like a skull.”
Hala died from asphyxiation due to neck compression, with blunt force trauma of the head a significant contributing injury, according to his death certificate. He was thought to have been injured around 2:30 a.m., roughly 90 minutes before police were called, the certificate shows.
Communications between Lee and Hala were found on Hala’s cellphone throughout the day before his death, and a message from Lee’s girlfriend to Hala apparently mentioned Hala and Lee fighting a few weeks before the incident, a search warrant states.
Lee and Hala were reportedly friends and coworkers, according to the search warrant. Lee had been working at Second Empire restaurant in downtown Raleigh since late 2024, court documents state, while a LinkedIn profile appearing to belong to Hala indicated he’d worked at Second Empire as a server since September 2023.
Hala graduated from N.C. State in May 2023 with a degree in sport management, according to the LinkedIn profile. He spent most of his childhood in the Outer Banks and enjoyed beach, baseball, golf, travel and live music, his obituary states. He is survived by his parents, sister, grandmothers and a host of extended family.
Lee remained in the Wake County jail without bail as of Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 4:15 PM.
