February 2024 Newsletter

The Durham County District Attorney’s Office newsletter highlights the work staff do in and out of the courthouse.

In the Community

The Durham DA’s Office participated in a screening of 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime. The new documentary centers on the 2015 murder of Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha and Razan Abu-Salha — and their families fight to have their deaths recognized as a hate crime. The Durham DA’s Office prosecuted the case in 2019, introducing evidence and testimony of the defendant’s anti-Muslim bias as part of a plea to three counts of first-degree murder.

The sold-out screening was followed by a panel discussion featuring DA Deberry, Durham County Board of Commissioners Chair Nida Allam, North Carolina Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, and UNC Law Professor Joseph Kennedy moderated by WUNC’s Leoneda Inge.

In the Office

The Durham DA’s Office welcomed a new assistant district attorney. Adaora Oguno joins the District Court Team. She previously interned with the DA’s Office in 2022 as a Fair and Just Prosecution summer fellow. During her internship she received the North Carolina Bar Association’s Government and Public Sector Section and Criminal Justice Section Scholarship. Oguno graduated from Fisk University and North Carolina Central University School of Law.

In the Courts

Recently closed cases include:

• Assistant District Attorney Adam Williamson closed a case involving a North Carolina Central University employee who made more than $800,000 in fraudulent transactions. According to the investigation, over the course of several years, the employee moved money from a university account to Eagle Card accounts for various students and non-students. Those accounts were then used to make large purchases from the campus bookstore, including computers, smart watches and tablets,. She pleaded guilty February 5 to conspiracy to embezzle $100,000 or more in state property, a Class D felony.
• ADA Williamson also secured convictions against a defendant who fled from law enforcement on multiple occasions. Incident reports state that in June 2023 a deputy pulled over a vehicle after recognizing that the driver had failed to stop for another officer days earlier and that the passenger was wanted for violating probation. The driver fled, reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour before the deputy lost sight of the vehicle. A few days later the driver was charged after getting in a wreck while fleeing law enforcement again. She pleaded guilty on February 7 to eluding arrest with two or more aggravating factors present, a Class H felony.
• Assistant District Attorney Carolee Ramoin secured a conviction in a 2022 nonfatal shooting. Officers responding to the incident located a couple with gunshot wounds who reported two suspects came to their home and shot them while they were eating, according to police reports. The defendant, who worked for one of the victims, pleaded guilty February 12 to assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, a Class E felony.
• Assistant District Attorney Brooks Stone secured convictions in a 2023 sexual assault of a minor. The child reported in 2023 that she had been assaulted by her mother’s partner. The defendant admitted to assaulting her over a period of nine moths. He pleaded guilty February 12 to first-degree statutory rape, a B1 felony, and taking indecent liberties with a child.
• ADA Stone also closed a 2021 assault case. In that case, the defendant drove her car into a yard where her former partner and others were gathered, striking another car. Police reports state she possessed a knife and threatened to kill the victims. No one was injured. The defendant pleaded guilty on February 7 to five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, a class A1 misdemeanor.

In the News

Spectrum News covered the $1.15 million Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant recently awarded to the Durham DA’s Office, and explored the need for funding for organizations that support survivors of sexual assault. The grant will allow the Durham DA’s Office to prosecute additional cases that results from testing previously untested sexual assault evidence kits. It also provides funding for survivors’ travel, lodging and food costs during trial, among other items.