She had met him on the internet; her boyfriend and a friend ambushed him when he came to her Mebane trailer; meanwhile, children were asleep with sleep-over guests in the trailer while assault took place
The third participant in a trio among two men and a woman who assaulted, robbed, kidnapped and bound a man and threw him over a bridge for dead almost two years ago has pleaded guilty in Alamance County superior court. Today’s case dealt with the woman who lured a male victim to Clover Creek Mobile Home Park where her boyfriend and his friend undertook the assault, robbery, and kidnapping. They then drove the victim to Granville County where they threw his bound body over a bridge.
The case began on May 2, 2019,when the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office and Granville County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation after a Raleigh man, Shawn Noble, was found on the side of a road in Granville County. The man claimed to have been assaulted, robbed, kidnapped, and thrown over a bridge near where he was found.
After a thorough investigation, according to the Alamance County sheriff’s office, detectives determined the victim was lured to Clover Creek Mobile Home Park off Trollingwood-Hawfields Road in Mebane by Brittney Lynne Darnell, white, female, then age 29 (now 30), an acquaintance whom the victim had met online. In the home asleep were Darnell’s children and two of her neighbor’s children who were having a sleep-over.
Two others were in the home as well, Darnell’s boyfriend Samuel Michah Murrell of the same address and his friend David Steele Richardson of Bunn. Murrell and Steele are white males, ages 29 and 26, respectively at the time of their arrests in 2019 (now 31 and 28).
Murrell and Richardson were lying in wait in the home. When the victim arrived, they assaulted him with a baseball bat and a tire iron and then robbed him of his valuables. The victim was left with severe lacerations to his head from the beating, and a large amount of blood was found in the home during the investigation.
The victim was then bound in duct tape and placed in the back of his own vehicle, a 2018 Mercedes Benz valued at $70,000. Richardson and Murrell drove him to Granville County where they used the victim’s bank card to withdraw cash from an ATM and then drove the victim to a bridge in a rural part of Granville County. Richardson and Murrell then pulled the victim out of the vehicle, still bound, and threw him over the bridge.
The victim fell 20 feet into a creek and sustained further life-threatening injuries from the fall.
The victim managed to crawl back to the road where he was discovered by a passing off-duty firefighter several hours later. The victim has since made a full recovery from his injuries. All individuals involved were taken into custody within a week of the case being opened.
On May 28, 2020, Murrell was sentenced to a maximum 19 years in prison, pleading guilty to attempted murder. On the same date, Richardson was sentenced to a maximum of 24 years and 10 months in prison, also for attempted murder.
On Tuesday, March 2, 2021, Darnell pleaded guilty to first degree kidnapping and was sentenced to a maximum of 8 years and 4 months in prison.
All charges were consolidated to Alamance County due to the crime originating in Alamance.
[Editor’s Note: Information on the crimes, investigation, and resulting court sentences furnished by Alamance County sheriff’s office.]
