Psychiatrist: Texas man actively participated in Granville couple's killings

Eric Alexander Campbell, 24, of Alvin, Texas, is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree arson, robbery with a dangerous weapon, larceny of a motor vehicle, financial card theft, identity theft and two counts of cruelty to animals in the Dec. 31, 2014, deaths of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife, Dora Faulkner, 62.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Authorities say Campbell and his father, Edward Watson Campbell, stormed into the Faulkners' home in northern Granville County, robbed them, killed them and set fire to the house before fleeing in both the couple's Chevrolet Silverado and a stolen SUV.

Police in Lewisburg, W.Va., arrested the Campbells on Jan. 1, 2015, following a shootout, and investigators found the Faulkners' bodies under a mattress in the back of the pickup.

Edward Campbell killed himself two months later in Raleigh’s Central Prison.

Eric Campbell has insisted that his father killed the Faulkners and that he was outside their home in northern Granville County during much of the attack. Three mental health experts testified for the defense that Eric Campbell suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after years of physical and emotional abuse by his father and couldn't have prevented the Faulkners' killings because he feared incurring his father's wrath.

Dr. Nicole Wolfe, a forensic psychiatrist at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, who conducted a court-ordered mental exam of Eric Campbell, disputed the notion that he was "frozen in fear" throughout the incident. His actions, from combing through the Faulkners' financial records to trying to hide evidence, demonstrate he knew what he was doing, she said, and the information he provided to law enforcement after his arrest was more indicative of "someone changing his story of his own volition."

PTSD wouldn't necessarily have prevented Eric Campbell from actively participating in the crime, Wolfe added.

"He doesn't have a mental disorder preventing him from doing any of these things," she told jurors.