A Hickory man who fatally stabbed his cousin could spend at least nine years in prison.
Arthur Lee Robinson, 54, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to an active prison term of six to nine years by the Honorable George C. Bell, Superior Court Judge from Mecklenburg County, during Catawba County Superior Court on Wednesday, March 20, 2019.
Robinson will serve the period of incarceration in custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections.
The defendant pleaded guilty to the October 2, 2016, stabbing death of 63-year-old Kester Hewitt, his cousin and roommate, a result of an argument between the two men.
Officers from Hickory Police Department responded to several calls about a civil disturbance between the two family members at the residence, but Robinson was not there each time. Officers advised Hewitt to lock the door and call law enforcement ifRobinson returned.
Around 4:45 a.m., a 911 call regarding a stabbing at the residence was received. Robinson was at the residence when HPD officers arrived and found Hewitt deceased in the living room with multiple stab wounds to his head and chest.
Robinson denied any involvement in the fatal stabbing, but investigators noticed blood on his sock when they interviewed him. Executing a search warrant at the residence, they found a knife in the defendant’s bedroom, and a DNA analysis of the blood on the knife confirmed it to be the murder weapon.
The autopsy report from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center determined Hewitt’s cause of death as sharp force injuries to the head and chest.
Hickory Police Department investigated the fatal stabbing. Assistant District Attorney Nolan Hancock prosecuted the case for the State.
CONTACT: Nathan Key
Phone: 828-695-6193
Email: Nathan.D.Key@nccourts.org