A 75-year-old Conover man will spend eight to 11 years in prison following his conviction for assault charges during Catawba County Superior Court on Monday, January 13, 2025.
Jimmy Lee Randolph was given the prison term after pleading guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and an additional count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.
The Honorable Karen Eady-Williams, Superior Court Judge from Mecklenburg County, imposed terms of the active sentence after Randolph entered the guilty plea on the day his case was scheduled for trial.
The defendant will serve his period of incarceration in custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections. Judge Eady-Williams ordered the sentence to run at the expiration of his parole revocation, once that is addressed at a future hearing.
The offenses occurred while Randolph was out of prison on post-release after serving 33 years for a 1990 murder conviction.
When he was released from prison, Randolph was working a job and was befriended there by the female victim of the assault. She helped him get used to living outside of prison, and he assisted her with some of her financial obligations. Later on, the female victim began a relationship with another man.
On September 22, 2023, the woman and her boyfriend returned to his apartment and were trying to get inside when Randolph physically attacked the man and knocked him to the ground. He then stabbed the male victim in the back with a 13-inch kitchen knife.
During the attack, the man’s 3-year-old son was knocked from his arms and also struck by the knife.
Randolph then turned his attention to the female victim and stabbed her in the back.
Multiple calls to 911 were made to report the incident, including one by the defendant during which he told the dispatcher that he had committed the offenses.
The knife described by the victims that was used in the attacks was located in the apartment of the defendant.
Robert Backman led the investigation for Conover Police Department. Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Greer and Taylor Rockett prosecuted the matter for the State with aid from Legal Assistant Stacey London.