Confrontation that prompted heart attack charged as murder
A man from Burlington has been arrested for first degree murder after a violent confrontation in Saxapahaw ends with another man’s death from an apparent heart attack.
Robert Daniel Terry was taken into custody shortly after the encounter with Michael Thomas Hickox, which reportedly occurred in a home at 5732 Rumley Road on Thursday evening.
According to the office of Alamance County’s sheriff, deputies were initially dispatched to this address at about 11:00 p.m. after Hickox suffered a case of cardiac arrest that ultimately proved fatal.
Witnesses later informed the deputies that Terry had shown up at the residence looking for Hickox, whom he allegedly proceeded to strangle and strike. This assault was, in turn, the sequel to another hostile exchange between the two men that reportedly transpired at a gas station along NC Highway 87.
Although the sheriff’s office has yet to ascertain what triggered these animosities, its investigators nevertheless believe that available evidence is enough to justify a charge of first degree murder – making it the first murder case that the agency has had in the current calendar year.
In addition to murder in the first, Terry also faces a second felony charge as an alleged absconder from the law. The 43-year-old white male of 1107 Lakeside Avenue Extension in Burlington has been jailed without bond since his arrest.
