Clayton man charged in wife's death in protective custody

Michael Rashun Sutton, 42, of 50 Valleyfield Drive, is charged with murder, attempted murder, discharging a weapon into an occupied dwelling and felony breaking and entering and is being held without bond.

Tonya Lashawn Sutton, 39, was gunned down at an apartment complex at 2413 Wesvill Court, off Lake Boone Trail near Rex Hospital in Raleigh, on Thursday morning.

A man who called 911 to report the shooting said Tonya Sutton was at his apartment when Michael Sutton fired several shots at his door. Tonya Sutton ran outside, where Michael Sutton shot her, the man told the dispatcher.

Police found her body on a sidewalk at the complex.

Family and friends remembered Tonya Sutton, a nurse technician in the neonatal intensive care unit at WakeMed and the mother of a young daughter, at a memorial service Tuesday evening, a few hours after her husband made his initial court appearance.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office, which operates the jail, wouldn't say why Michael Sutton has been separated from other inmates, but protective custody is typically used when an inmate poses a danger to himself or others.

This isn't the first time he's been charged with a violent crime. A jury cleared him of 2001 charges of attempted murder and arson, and he served time in prison in Georgia in the 1990s for assaults.