• Wendell Freeman, 37, of Hallsboro, will be tried for pistol slaying of Andrew Brown of Whiteville.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Jury selection begins this afternoon (Monday) in the murder trial of Wendell Freeman, a man who evaded arrest for 50 weeks after a Whiteville man died of a pistol shot to the head in August 2004.

This is the second murder trial in six weeks here. Ramel Theodore Troy, 24, of Clarkton, was sentenced to life in prison – without parole – on Sept. 5 after he was convicted of killing Jonathan Chase Powell in 2002.

Freeman is charged in the death of Andrew Brown, 42, who died in the New Hanover Regional Medical Center on Aug. 16, 2004 after being shot two days before in Whiteville at 12:30 a.m. on a street corner.

Freeman was at-large until Aug. 3, 2005 when he was found in the home of his sister in the Hallsboro community.

Police records show Brown and Freeman exchanged some words as Brown was standing on the southwest corner at the intersection of Virgil Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

Freeman, driving a van, pulled away and proceeded north on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and traveled about three blocks before turning around and returning to the intersection.

Without warning, Brown was shot, record shows. Freeman is said to have made some statement about Brown not showing him “respect” during the earlier conversation.