State to seek death penalty in 2008 shooting of soldier

The state plans to seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a Fort Bragg soldier outside a Bragg Boulevard nightclub in 2008.

Prosecutor Cal Colyer announced the state's plans during a court hearing Wednesday for James Anthony Carr.

Carr is one of four men accused of killing Sgt. Sergio Sanchez on April 12, 2008, outside Sharky's Cabaret.

Sanchez, 22, was at the club with friends to celebrate their safe return from a 15-month deployment in Iraq, Colyer said.

Sanchez, the designated driver for the group, was on the phone when he came upon his friends being robbed at gunpoint outside the club.

Colyer said Carr shot Sanchez in the head. He died a week later.

Carr, 26, was charged with murder four months later after Fayetteville detectives investigated links between the robberies and similar crimes committed in Sampson County.

Terrance Lee Roberts, Jeriamiah Markee Clark and Roy Lee Hawk also were charged in the killing, but Colyer said Carr was the one who pulled the trigger.

None of the others will face the death penalty, Colyer said.

One of Carr's lawyers, Robert Buzzard, said the decision to seek the death penalty would be challenged.

He said school records show Carr was in special education classes since the age of 12, and he has an IQ of 66, below the level needed to show mental retardation.

"It seems pretty clear that he fits the definition of retarded," Buzzard said.

Carr and Roberts were under state supervision at the time of the shooting. Carr was under post-release supervision; Roberts was on probation. According to court records, Roberts had violated his probation but had not been arrested.

Robert Lee Guy, then-head of the state Division of Community Corrections, reviewed the cases of both men following their arrests. He determined their cases were handled adequately and that there was no mismanagement.