A man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder from 2022 in Pender County Superior Court on Sept. 18.
Charles Michael Haywood, 26, pleaded guilty to killing a CBD store clerk in Surf City on Aug. 24, 2022. Margaret Nicole Bracey was stabbed to death while working at the Exotic Hemp Co. on N.C. 50. She was 42.
Haywood, who was facing the death penalty, received a consolidated sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the charges of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. The court also recommended psychological counseling for Haywood.
Bracey was stabbed 16 times in the neck that evening, in addition to suffering stab wounds on her face, head and torso, said District Attorney Jason Smith, who called it one of
the most brutal cases he has ever dealt with.
“It was the worst thing I’ve seen as a prosecutor in 14 years,” Assistant District Attorney Brad Matthews said.
Haywood pulled out a knife and demanded Bracey open a cash register shortly after he entered the store, according to a search warrant. After Bracey removed cash from the register, Haywood stabbed her “multiple times,” and the clerk died from those injuries, the warrant said.
Officers responding to the scene found Bracey covered in blood, said Smith, who noted that surveillance cameras captured the incident. “At some point he pulls out a knife … and it was horrendous,” Smith said.
In addition to video evidence, Smith said, a knife, a backpack belonging to Haywood and items from the store with blood on it that he had thrown into a trash can were recovered near the Surf City residence where he was staying.
“Not only do we have physical evidence linking the defendant, we have video and a confession of him admitting what he did was wrong,” Smith said.
Haywood was injured during the attack and bleeding from a cut on his hand, according to an arrest warrant.
Haywood’s mother said her son returned home with his shirt wrapped around his bleeding hand, and she took him to Onslow Memorial Hospital for treatment, according to court documents. Then, after seeing his photo in a news release about the attack, she turned him into the Surf City Police Department the next day, Smith said.
In a police interview, Haywood admitted to the stabbing and said “Sarah,” an internal voice in his mind, told him to murder, Smith said.
“He had planned to kill a male,” Smith said. “Sarah's voice told him to kill her. He said he knew what he did was wrong and he regretted it.”
Smith said the two did not know each other and the attack was random.
“Heinous, heinous crime,” he said. “She was brutally attacked and killed for nothing, for being the unfortunate employee of the Hemp Company that night.”
Appearing before Superior Court Judge Kent Harrell at the Frances Dawson Basden Judicial Annex in Burgaw, Haywood did not talk about the incident.
His attorney, public defender Bud Woodrum, said it was “the culmination of a long history of mental illness, untreated mental illness. That doesn’t excuse what happened.”
Two of Bracey’s aunts, Nancy Bracey and Laura Rowe, and her sister, Kayla Richardson, addressed the court.
“She didn’t deserve this,” Nancy Bracey said. “She didn’t deserve the death that she got.”
Rowe said: “It’s been very tough, a hard few years. You feel numb. You feel a chronic sadness. … I know she was scared and it hurt and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop it.”
Richardson said her sister “was a fighter and had been her whole life. Life was never easy for her. … Her future was stolen from her.”
Smith said, “The only thing she did wrong that day was go to work.”
Bob Liepa is the city of Wilmington and public safety reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at RLiepa@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Man pleads guilty to murder in 2022 Surf City death
