Phillip Lee Ingle was convicted in North Carolina of killing two elderly married couples in the summer of 1991. William Fred Davis, 68, and Margaret Shufford Davis, 67, died in Rutherford County on Sunday, July 28, 1991. About six weeks later E.Z. Willis and Sarah Willis died in Gaston County. A jury in Cleveland County sentenced Ingle to death for the Davis deaths in February 1993, and the Supreme Court of North Carolina upheld that result in July 1994. He then gave up the rest of his appeals, asked to be executed, and died on September 22, 1995. He was the 299th person executed in the United States since 1976, and one of those who had given up their appeals.
His birth date, early life and work history have not been published.
William Fred Davis was 68 and Margaret Shufford Davis was 67. They lived in Rutherford County and were a familiar presence to their children and other relatives. They died on Sunday, July 28, 1991.
Ingle was not a stranger to the couple: he had been their tenant in 1987. By 1991 he was living in the county with his wife and young children.
E.Z. Willis and Sarah Willis, an elderly couple, were killed in Gaston County some six weeks after the Davis deaths. The Supreme Court of North Carolina described the two sets of killings as committed under remarkably similar circumstances. The exact date and town of the Willis deaths are not on record. The Willis case was a separate prosecution, and a Supreme Court order of April 6, 1995 refers to a Gaston County conviction, then awaiting the court's mandatory review of a death sentence, alongside the Rutherford County conviction that had already been affirmed. The charge wording and verdict date of the Gaston County case are not on record.
In mid-August 1991 Ingle told a friend that he had killed two people. In September 1991, around the tenth to the twelfth of the month, he made further statements that alarmed the friend. The friend and another man then contacted the State Bureau of Investigation.
Gaston County officers questioned Ingle about the Willis deaths. When they turned to the Davis case, he answered, "Yeah, I killed them, too." The court later held that he had waived his rights knowingly and voluntarily before giving a statement describing his part in both sets of killings. He gave no clear motive.
A Rutherford County grand jury indicted Ingle on October 14, 1991, for the first-degree murders of William Fred Davis and Margaret Shufford Davis. On November 12, 1992, Judge Chase B. Saunders moved the trial to Cleveland County because of pretrial publicity. The two cases were joined for trial on February 8, 1993. On February 17, 1993, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in each case, on the basis of malice, premeditation and deliberation.
The defense argued that he was insane. Its expert testified that Ingle was in a psychotic state during the killings and could not tell right from wrong, though the expert did not say he was unable to plan or deliberate. The judge refused to submit second-degree murder for the killing of William Fred Davis, though a second-degree murder instruction was given for Margaret Davis. The Supreme Court of North Carolina later held that there was enough evidence of sanity to deny a motion to dismiss, noting, among other things, what Ingle did after the Davis deaths and what he told friends.
Evidence of the Willis deaths was admitted at the Cleveland County trial. The court held that it corroborated his confession, since an uncorroborated confession alone cannot support a conviction, and that it showed identity, plan and state of mind.
At the sentencing proceeding the jury heard of a troubled childhood. The defense described a mother who attempted suicide in front of him on a number of occasions, suicide attempts of his own beginning at about age 5 or 6, and long-term abuse of drugs and alcohol with periodic admissions to hospitals and mental institutions. The jury rejected all four statutory mitigating circumstances put to it, including mental disturbance and impaired capacity. It accepted six of ten nonstatutory ones, among them his confession, his childhood circumstances, his suicide attempts and the fact that he had two young daughters, aged 9 and 2.
For William Fred Davis the jury found two aggravating circumstances: that the killing met the statutory atrocious-or-cruel circumstance, and that it was part of a course of conduct that included other violent crimes. For Margaret Shufford Davis it found the course-of-conduct circumstance. The jury recommended death, and on February 19, 1993, the trial court imposed a sentence of death in each case.
Ingle raised 29 assignments of error. In an opinion by Justice Meyer on July 29, 1994, the Supreme Court of North Carolina rejected all of them and entered "No error." It held that the confession was admissible, that the closing arguments, including references to religion and to a "death warrant," did not require relief, and that a prosecutor's comment on parole at sentencing was improper but not prejudicial. On proportionality it concluded that the death sentences were not excessive or disproportionate, pointing to the unprovoked killing of an elderly couple, the lack of any clear motive and the evidence of the Willis deaths.
Ingle was one of three prisoners executed in North Carolina during the political fights of 1994 and 1995 over funding for capital defender specialists, with David Lawson and Kermit Smith. He became the state's first "volunteer": he gave up his right to appeal beyond the direct appeal and asked to be executed, and the Governor agreed.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina's order of April 6, 1995, treated a letter from Ingle as a motion for appropriate relief. For the Gaston County conviction, which was still pending on appeal, it denied the motion and said it did not preclude the mandatory review required by the state's capital sentencing statute. For the Rutherford County case, already affirmed, it dismissed the motion and noted that a hearing had been set in the Superior Court of the 29th Prosecutorial District to set an execution date.
Ingle was executed in North Carolina on September 22, 1995, the 42nd execution in the United States that year and the 299th since 1976.
The Supreme Court of North Carolina rejected the defense argument that his mental state barred a finding of premeditation: the defense expert said he could not tell right from wrong but did not say he could not plan or deliberate. His mental state was described at trial as a psychotic state arising from borderline personality disorder, and later as paranoid schizophrenia. His motive is not on record beyond the court's statement that he gave no clear reason. The verdict date and exact charge wording in the Gaston County case are not on record.
July 28, 1991: William Fred Davis, 68, and Margaret Shufford Davis, 67, die in Rutherford County.
Mid-August 1991: Ingle tells a friend he has killed two people.
About six weeks after the Davis deaths (September 1991): E.Z. Willis and Sarah Willis die in Gaston County.
Around September 10 to 12, 1991: Ingle returns to his friend's home; the friend and another man contact the State Bureau of Investigation.
October 14, 1991: A Rutherford County grand jury indicts him for the Davis deaths.
November 12, 1992: Trial moved to Cleveland County.
February 8, 1993: The two Davis cases are joined for trial.
February 17, 1993: Jury returns guilty verdicts of first-degree murder.
February 19, 1993: Death sentence imposed in each case.
July 29, 1994: Supreme Court of North Carolina finds "No error."
April 6, 1995: Supreme Court order on his letter; Gaston County conviction pending mandatory review; hearing set to fix an execution date in the Rutherford County case.
September 22, 1995: Executed.