Judge sets Johnnie Beck
free at Tuesday hearing

By BOB HIGH

A much wiser, lean and fit Johnnie Beck couldn’t help but smile Wednesday morning when he was asked how it felt to be out of prison.

“It’s like (Martin Luther King Jr.) said, ‘I’m free! Thank God, I’m free at last,” Beck said with a wide grin.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling. People don’t know what it’s like being in that place (prison),” the 29-year-old Beck added.

He was busy trying to find all the documents he would need to get a new driver’s license. His last one lapsed shortly after he entered prison following his conviction by a jury of second-degree murder on Feb. 27, 1997.

Beck began a term of 12 years and nine months for the rifle slaying of Donathan Jeffery Watts, 19, of Tabor City on the night of Nov. 14, 1995.

Johnnie was freed at almost 5 p.m. sharp Tuesday after Superior Court Judge Gary Locklear ordered the young man was entitled to “some appropriate relief” based on the evidence of two witnesses Locklear heard Tuesday afternoon.

The judge said the new evidence “did not sustain” the jury’s 1997 verdict, but would support a guilty finding to a crime of a lesser degree. District Attorney Rex Gore agreed and offered Beck a plea of voluntary manslaughter, which was accepted and Beck was sentenced to 51 to 72 months and given credit for time served.

New evidence

Marvadean Locklear (no relation to Judge Gary Locklear) of Chadbourn – finally identified and found by Beck’s parents after years of searching – testified that she was in a car riding around in Whiteville the night of the shooting.

She said she knew “Jeff” Watts and that she had heard him threaten to kill Johnnie and his twin brother Ronnie. She said Jonathan Norris and Daniel Norris put Watts in their car and took him to the Burger King.

The woman, in her sworn statement, said . . . “we rode on through (the parking lot), you could tell he was serious, but we rode on through town and came back to the Burger King.

“As we turned in, you could tell it had gone through, he (Watts) had went up there and intended, tried to do just what he had said he was going to do,” Marvadean Locklear said in her statement.

“We turned in and Daniel Norris run up to me crying and jumped in the car. He said we got to get rid of it. We got to get rid of this gun.

“So, I took him, took him to McDonald’s where he asks me to. There was a little black truck. He jumped out. He put a gun in the truck, a little black Ford Ranger, I think it was. I can’t remember exactly, don’t know whose it was, but he, that’s where he put the gun.

“It was a big gun. I can’t tell you exactly what kind it was, to me it looked like a sawed-off shotgun,” the Locklear woman continued in her statement.

Additional evidence

Marvin Larrimore of Whiteville was the second witness Tuesday. He testified he saw a male person enter a sports car driven by a female and the male had a “big gun when he got into the car.”

Larrimore said he didn’t know any of the people involved in the shooting, and he left the scene after what he saw, not stopping or staying for any time at all.

He testified that he made no statements about the shooting, and was not asked anything about the incident, and did not volunteer any information then or later.

Judge Locklear’s order noted that Marvin Larrimore’s brother (George Larrimore, who is in prison for murder), was at some point in the same state prison unit with Johnnie Beck.

This led to contact with Harold Thompson of Whiteville, a private investigator, who obtained a statement from Marvin Larrimore about what he saw that night in 1995.

Desperate search

Long before Johnnie began his prison term, his parents Donnie and Linda Beck of F.M. Cartret Road, Whiteville, began a desperate search for additional witnesses and information about that fateful rainy night in 1995.

Donnie found additional information, but was continually rebuffed as he and Johnnie filed motion after motion to have the new evidence heard. His pleas for help from the state to get the information into the courtroom fell on deaf ears.

“If other motions we had, particularly the one from George Fairfax of Cerro Gordo, had been allowed to be heard, it wouldn’t have taken this long. Mr. Fairfax saw the whole thing that night. He was less than 25 feet from where the stabbing and shooting took place,” Donnie explained.

“But no statement from him was given to the defense, and I don’t know if the district attorney knew about him or not. I don’t think the Whiteville police told the DA about Mr. Fairfax,” the father continued.

“Rex Gore has just become willing to listen in the last year because of the Blue Line radio show in Wilmington,” Donnie pointed out.

“Marc and Tre Benson have that radio show on Saturdays, and they deserve much of the credit for helping get the statements from the new witnesses, and helping find other evidence that would help Johnnie,” Donnie added.

Begging has ended

Donnie, who said he’s spent more than his life’s savings in the never-ending effort to free his son, put his hand on Johnnie’s shoulder and said, “He’s innocent. It’s cost me my health, but I’d do it again without even thinking about it.

“My begging for help is over. Johnnie is home and I don’t want anybody else messing with any of my family. I spent over $300,000 during the past 12 years. I didn’t lose my farmland, but I spent everything I had and could earn,” Donnie declared.

“Something needs to be done about the sorry investigation the police did in this case. We had retired FBI agents and private investigators who found people who were there that night and gave statements to the police, but their statements mysteriously disappeared at the police department,” Donnie stated.

“We learned that Mr. Fairfax told police what he saw and provided them a phone number to be contacted to give a written statement, but they never called him.

“Mr. Fairfax said the two shots Johnnie fired were right behind each other. There wasn’t a pause of 15 to 20 seconds like it was presented in the courtroom. I guess the police didn’t want to use Mr. Fairfax because it would have contradicted what the Norris boys said happened,” the father added.

New life begins

Johnnie’s new life was evident. He couldn’t sit still. He was free. He moved quickly about the office of Beck Equipment Company here, where his father built a good business of repairing heavy equipment, particularly those with hydraulic problems.

Johnnie will soon lend a hand to his twin brother Ronnie, the man who was stabbed by the aggressor Watts in 1995 – the act that led to Johnnie firing the two rifle bullets outside the hamburger business’ front door.

Johnnie thanked local attorney Paul Ekster for his efforts to get the new evidence into the courtroom, and both he and his father have great respect for Judge Locklear.

“I thank the judge for having common sense and hearing this case. I’m very appreciative of his manner on the bench and his understanding. He said he could tell when someone is lying on the stand, and he made it very clear he believed Marvadean Locklear’s statement,” Donnie pointed out.

The father smiled and added,” Judge Locklear made it very clear he wasn’t related in any way to Marvadean Locklear.”

Johnnie said he spent the last three and a half years of his prison term in the New Hanover County unit, and had been on work release for the past five months, working with a concrete company an average of 70 hours a week.

“Before that I worked with the DOT (Department of Transportation) in Brunswick County picking up dead animals from the highway,” he said.

He noted he paid the state $750 a month for room and board, and was allowed to only have $40 a week to spend. The prison held the rest of his money.

Johnnie switched back to talking about his parents. “That man deserves the credit for me standing here today,” Johnnie said as he pointed to his father.

The Becks said there would be a party at Donnie’s home Saturday, and it’s possible the Blue Line radio show would be broadcast live from the party.

Johnnie was scheduled to be released from prison on Feb. 25, 2007, 10 years and 363 days after he was convicted. He had been sentenced to a maximum of 12 years and nine months.

The family of Jeffery Watts said they would have no comment on the development.

Those wishing to read more about the Johnnie Beck case can reach the Blue Line radio website at bluelineradio.com