Youth admits
to Jan. slaying

By BOB HIGH

Byron Leneau Hooks, a 19-year-old construction worker from Cherry Grove Road, Cerro Gordo, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of murder in the Jan. 14 shotgun slaying of a Cerro Gordo man. Hooks has confessed to the shooting.

Mickey Ray Hayes, 54, was found dead from a close-range shotgun wound to his head on the living room floor of his doublewide mobile home the night of the killing.

Hooks told detectives that he went to Hayes’ home with a 12-gauge semi-automatic to confront Hayes about comments Hayes is reported to have made to Hooks’ mother, Melissa Enzor Hooks, during a telephone conversation between the two adults earlier the same day, according to Sheriff’s Detective Capt. Bobby Benton.

“Byron Hooks felt that some comments made by Hayes were an insult to his mother and he took the shotgun and went to Hayes’ home to confront him about the matter, from what we can gather,” Benton said.

Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. David Nobles and SBI Agent Mac Warner arrested Hooks Tuesday morning at a Red Springs construction site where the teen was working with his father.

Benton said the shotgun was recovered and is being sent for ballistics testing to the SBI lab in Garner. The weapon was found in the home of Hooks’ grandfather, located beside his mother’s residence along Cherry Grove Road, about 1.5 miles from Hayes’ home along Peanut Worley Road.

The young man took the shotgun shell, along with the weapon, from the scene, Benton added.

Hooks was on the initial suspect list developed by detectives and became the sole suspect after further investigation. Sgt. Nobles said Hooks confessed to the shooting while being processed in the county jail.

Nobles said the inside front door of Hayes’ home was open when he was found by a man who had been repairing a vehicle for the retiree from the U.S. Navy. He said it was known in Hayes’ neighborhood that if Hayes’ inside door was open – easily seen from the road through a glass storm door -- Hayes welcomed company.

Sheriff Chris Batten said Hooks’ arrest clears 2006’s only homicide to date, and reported the sheriff’s detectives are actively working several other homicides, including several from the last half of 2005. These include the triple slaying in Chadbourn last November.

Batten said he was proud of the work done by his detective staff and SBI Agent Warner.

“We’re close to issuing warrants in some of the murder cases, but at this time I can’t say anything else about the individual cases,” Batten said.