Local News

Jury deliberations end for the week in Seaga Gillard death penalty trial with no decision

The Wake County jury deliberating whether to impose the death sentence on Seaga Edward Gillard has concluded their work for the week without reaching a decision.

Posted Updated

By
Alfred Charles
, WRAL.com managing editor
RALEIGH, N.C. — The Wake County jury deliberating whether to impose the death sentence on Seaga Edward Gillard has concluded their work for the week without reaching a decision.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Friday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway announced the jury had asked to be released for the day so the panel could continue its deliberations on Monday. Ridgeway agreed, saying court would resume Monday morning at 9:30 a.m.

If the panel ultimately decides to impose capital punishment on Gillard, it will be the first time in over a decade that a Wake County jury has handed down a death sentence.

The jury began its deliberations around 2:30 p.m. Friday afternoon after nearly 90 minutes of hearing instructions from Wake County Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway.

Before jurors began deliberating, prosecutors tried to convince the panel that Gillard deserved capital punishment.

"It's about justice (and) our law says this is about maximum justice," said Wake County Assistant District Attorney David Saacks, who argued that Gillard's decision to kill April Lynn Holland, 22, and her boyfriend, Dwayne Garvey, 28, deserved the death penalty.

"April and Dewayne did not deserve to die," Saacks said. "This defendant does."

But defense attorneys urged jurors to reject capital punishment.

"The only way he leaves prison is in a casket," Edd Roberts said. "He will never know the freedoms we take for granted."

They died inside an Americas Best Value Inn, a motel located on Arrow Drive off Glenwood Avenue.

Security cameras at the motel near Crabtree Valley Mall captured the deaths of Holland and Garvey. During the first phase of the trial, jurors saw the grisly black-and-white footage in which Gillard opened fire on Garvey inside a motel hallway.

Seaga Gillard sits in court on March 1 as a jury decides whether to impose the death sentence after he was convicted of a 2016 double murder.

Saacks told the jury Friday that despite the couple's involvement in running a prostitution enterprise, their lives still mattered.

"They were murdered in cold blood," Sacks said. "Now we're deciding on the appropriate punishment. Do they matter?"

During the trial, the prosecution said Gillard was a repeat criminal who had robbed and sexually assaulted a string of women before the slayings of Holland and Garvey.

But the defense pointed to his impoverished upbringing in Saint Lucia, where he was raised by older siblings and had little contact, if any, with his parents.

The last time a Wake County jury imposed the death penalty was in 2007, when a jury sentenced Byron Waring to death for the murder of Lauren Redman.

The last time an inmate was executed in North Carolina was in 2006 when Samuel Flippen was put to death.

The Forsyth County man had been convicted of the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter.

According to state officials, there are 140 people on the state's death row, including 137 men, held at Central Prison, and three women, who are being held at the NC Correctional Institute for Women in Raleigh.

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.