April 2024 Newsletter
The Durham County District Attorney’s Office newsletter highlights the work staff do in and out of the courthouse.
In the Community
Durham DA’s Office staff spoke to students at North Carolina Central University as part of a Sexual Assault Awareness Month event. Special Victims Unit Lead ADA Angela Garcia-Lamarca participated in a panel discussion with representatives from NCCU and the Durham Police Department. They discussed the reporting and legal process for sexual assault cases and how Durham’s law enforcement and victim service organizations work together to support survivors. Legal Assistants Chelsey Lewis and Katie Acker, ADAs Raye Cameron and John Donovan, and Communications Specialist Sarah Willets shared information about the office and how to support loved ones who have experienced sexual assault.
In the Office
eCourts went live in Durham County on April 29. The statewide initiative aims to transition North Carolina’s courts from a paper-based to a cloud-based system. Going forward all court documents will be created digitally or scanned, and managed digitally. As court personnel learn new technology and new procedures, there may be wait times in courtrooms and courthouse offices. Members of the public are encouraged to make use of the following resources:
Leo Jimenez-Castillo marked 15 years with the Durham DA’s Office in April. She has worked on homicide and others violent crime cases as a legal assistant for the past 10 years. Prior to that she worked on property and drug crimes.
The DA’s Office welcomed a new assistant District Attorney. John Donovan joins the Special Victims Unit. He most recently served as a magistrate in Durham County for six years. A graduate of Duke Law School, he previously worked as a criminal defense attorney, including seven years as a public defender in Durham.
Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Ingram was named the lead prosecutor over the DA’s Office’s Drug and Property Crimes Team. ADA Ingram has been a homicide and violent crime prosecutor in the office since 2020. A graduate of North Carolina Central University School of Law, she previously worked with North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, where she was a senior staff attorney, and served as a public defender in Durham for 12 years.
In the Courts
- Assistant District Attorney Carolee Ramoin secured a conviction in a homicide that occurred on March 15, 2022. Officers responded to a report of a gunshot wound and found a man lying in a driveway with gunshot wounds to his leg and stomach. Witnesses reported seeing another man argue with the victim, hearing gunshots and seeing the other man leave in a white SUV. Cell phone records placed the defendant at the scene of the murder and gas station surveillance footage showed him the night before driving the same SUV seen by neighbors and wearing a shirt found at the scene of the crime. The defendant pleaded guilty on April 22 to second-degree murder.
- Assistant District Attorney Angela Garcia-Lamarca obtained convictions in a September 5, 2021, homicide. Police found the victim in the driver’s seat of a car with a gunshot wound to the side of his waist. Initially, the defendant said she had been in the back seat of the car when a passenger she did not know shot the victim and ran away. Witnesses did not report seeing a third occupant in the vehicle, but did report seeing the defendant with a gun or holster. Officers later searched the defendant’s handbag and found a holster consistent with the type of gun used to shoot the victim and with a gun that was found in a nearby area where the defendant had been seen after the shooting. The defendant pleaded guilty on April 29 to second-degree murder.
- Assistant District Attorney Monica Burnette secured convictions in a January 8, 2022, hit-and-run. The victim was waiting to turn out of her boyfriend’s driveway on to South Briggs Avenue when she was struck head-on by a speeding Cadillac Escalade. The Escalade was found abandoned a short distance from the crash scene. The victim, who was eight months pregnant, was transported to a hospital for an emergency C-Section. The parties in the case participated in a restorative mediation process, in which a retired judge facilitates conversations between the parties. This process can give victims closure and a more direct role in the case. Following the successful conclusion of the mediation process, the defendant pleaded guilty April 1 to felony hit and run inflicting serious injury.
