Prosecutors for the State announced during Catawba County Superior Court on Monday, February 4, 2019, that they will not seek the death penalty in the murder case of Jerry Lewis Woods.
Woods, 60, of Hickory, is charged with murder in the December 24, 2018, stabbing death of 33-year-old Octavia Deanna Beaty.
Woods previously was convicted of second-degree murder in Catawba County in August 1982 and served a sentence of more than 30 years in custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections.
The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. He remains incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center without bond.
The case remains under investigation by Hickory Police Department.
CONTACT: Nathan Key
Phone: 828-695-6193
Email: Nathan.D.Key@nccourts.org