Name: Murder trial underway for NC man accused of killing woman in home invasion
Uploaded: 2022-03-22T18:52:00-0400
Duration: 170688
Description: Lester Kearney, 36, has maintained his innocence in the murder trial of Nancy Alford. She was killed in a fire at her home after her husband was beaten and tied up.

Homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods, so purchasing separate flood insurance is crucial in North Carolina, especially in high-risk areas.

Homeowners insurance doesn't cover floods: How to protect your home in North Carolina

Princeville residents weigh options after Hurricane Matthew

Athens Drive Magnet High School and Conn Magnet Elementary School won national awards Saturday at the Magnet Schools of America's annual conference.

Top two magnet schools in the US are in Wake County

Athens Drive High School

Lester Kearney, 36, has maintained his innocence in the murder trial of Nancy Alford. She was killed in a fire at her home after her husband was beaten and tied up.

<p>REASSURE YOU THAT THERE IS NOT A LARGE TORNADO THREAT. DAVID, WE'LL SEE YOU THEN. MIKE, THANK YOU. NEARLY 4 YEARS AFTER A LATE GASTON HOME INVASION AND ARSON. &gt;&gt; THE MURDER TRIAL OF LEICESTER KEARNEY STARTED TODAY IN WARREN COUNTY. WRAL'S CULLEN BROWDER COVER THE STORY. THE DAY IT HAPPENED AND JOINS US NOW LIVE FROM THE WARREN COUNTY COURTHOUSE WITH SOME LATE-BREAKING DEVELOPMENTS. COMMENTS. &gt;&gt; THAT'S RIGHT, REVEREND JOHN ALFORD, WHO IS TERRORIZING THAT CASE IN 2018, HIS WIFE KILLED ACTUALLY TOOK THE STAND LATE TODAY. WE'VE GOT MORE IMPORTANT TESTIMONY COMING FROM HIM EARLIER. WITNESSES TODAY TALKED ABOUT THE INTENSE HEAT OF THAT FIRE. OF COURSE, THE UNTHINKABLE DEATH OF PSYCHOLOGIST NANCY, ALL FOR A KEY QUESTION IN THIS CASE IS WHETHER OR NOT LESTER KEARNEY WAS THERE &gt;&gt; FROM 2018 LAKE, GASTON CRIME SCENE TOOK COURTROOM. &gt;&gt; THAT DISTRICT ATTORNEY MIKE WATERS WERE COUNTED A DAY OF TERROR. JOHN AND NANCY OFFERED AWAKENED, REVEREND OFFERED BEATEN AND TIED UP. &gt;&gt; THIS IS ALL FOR KIDNAP TO GET MONEY FROM HER BANK. AND ONCE SHE RETURNED, THE HOME WAS TORCHED. REVEREND, ALL FOR FREEDOM SELF. BUT DESPITE A DESPERATE ATTEMPT IN THE INTENSE FLAMES COULDN'T SAVE HIS AND THEN &gt;&gt; DEFENSE ATTORNEY ROBERT SINGLE IS COUNTERED HIS CLIENT LIST OR KEARNEY WASN'T EVEN THERE TRACKING RECORDS. BUT KEARNEY CELL PHONE AT HIS GIRLFRIEND'S HOUSE THAT MORNING MILES AWAY FROM THE ALFORD HOME AND BAKE. CO-DEFENDANT KEVIN MONTH PLEADED GUILTY TO THE HOME INVASION IN KILLING IN 2018 AND INITIALLY AGREED TO COOPERATE WITH THE INVESTIGATION IS SAYS. &gt;&gt; WE HE OF THOSE IN PLACE AFTER REPORTS THAT KEARNEY THREATEN TO ONE TRYING TO RECOUNT. BUT A JUDGE REJECTED THE PLEA CHANGE ON RIVER KNOW FOR STANDS AS THE KEY WITNESS. DEFENSE ATTORNEYS CONTEND THE ID WAS SHOW AND &gt;&gt; THAT HE HAD ALREADY TOO FULL WAS ARRESTED FOR LAST. &gt;&gt; DAY ONE OF THE TRIAL CLOSED WITH REVEREND ALL FOR HIMSELF ON THE STATED THE 84 YEAR-OLD METICULOUSLY DETAILED HIS CAREER MARRIAGE AND BUILDING OF HIS HOME. &gt;&gt; AND OF COURSE, LIFE DIDN'T DID MUCH TOO QUICK FOR HER. &gt;&gt; ROBERT ALFORD ENDED TODAY'S COURT TALKING ABOUT HIS WIFE, BUT HE DID NOT GET INTO WHAT HAPPENED. HE'LL BE BACK ON THE STAND TOMORROW MORNING TO TALK ABOUT THAT EVER. &gt;&gt; PRETTY REMARKABLE. CULLEN</p>

Maggie Brown

Cullen Browder

Edward Wilson

Murder trial underway for NC man accused of killing woman in home invasion

John Alford 

WRAL-TV News Broadcasts: Watch each newscast live or watch the most recent newscast on demand.

WRAL Late News 

Get the latest WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast whenever you need it, including the DUALDoppler5000 and the 7-Day Forecast.

Meteorologist Amy Wing in the WRL severe weather center. Staying quiet. Today, we do have a system west of us that's produced a lot of severe weather, but high pressure is going to keep that area of rain and storms from getting to our area. But numerous severe reports, tornado reports, hail reports, wind damage reports with this system over the last 48 hours, it's not coming our way. We don't have any rain chances for the next few days. Here's a look at futurecast, notice how high pressure kind of keeps it all away from us. We will stay nice and dry for the end of the weekend through Monday. As we head into Tuesday, we start to see that ridge of high pressure break down a little bit. And so our chance for rain starts to go up a little bit as we head into Tuesday evening and into Wednesday, it's about a 30% chance for some hit and miss showers through the day on Wednesday. Not a big deal. It's not going to amount to much, but it is one of our best chances for rain in the next several days. So a little bit of rain possible as we head into Tuesday night and Wednesday today, it's dry as we wrap up the weekend. Pretty nice, partly cloudy to mostly sunny and warm with highs in the lower eighties. Then tonight, clear skies and mild with lows down into the upper fifties and looking ahead to tomorrow, it's going to be even warmer. We'll have a lot of sunshine with high temperatures in the mid 80 s about 10 degrees above normal for this time of year. It stays nice and quiet for the next several days. Our next chance for showers arrives Tuesday. Maybe a few hit and miss storms on Wednesday. It will be dry Thursday and Friday and then a slight chance for a couple of storms heading into Saturday.

WRAL WeatherCenter Forecast

Nightly N.C. Education Lottery drawings during the 11 p.m. News.

Hi there, I'm Tina selling cash with tonight's lottery drawings for Saturday, April 27th, 2024. Our Carolina pick three is ready to go. Nine is the first winning number followed by three. The third pick three tonight is nine and our pick three. Fireball number is zero. Joining me for tonight's drawing is our auditor from mcconnell and Jones L LP. Now it's time for the Carolina pick for check the tickets. Good luck. First winning number zero. Second pick four tonight. Seven. Third winning number three. Our fourth pick four is five and our pick four. Fireball number is also five. Let's turn now to the Carolina cash five. If no one matches all five numbers to win the jackpot tonight, tomorrow's jackpot has grown to an estimated $936,000. Good luck. 21 is our first winning cash five number tonight followed by 23rd cash 5, 26. 4th winning number 11 and good luck. Our final winning cash five number tonight is 28. The North Carolina Education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support and get the winning numbers every night. Right here on your exclusive station for the North Carolina Education Lottery. Thanks for playing.

Evening Pick 3 Pick 4 and Cash 5

Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday Powerball drawings, as shown live on WRAL.

Game. This is Powerball. Good evening America. I'm Michelle Isles tonight. We've got another life changing jackpot for you in an estimated amount of $151.1 million. Get your tickets out. We'll start things off tonight with the number 62. Right after that America. We have 55. Let's congratulate Dennis Goodman of Kentucky who won $150,000. Your next number up tonight is 53. That's followed by nine and we're rounded out tonight with 30 now for your winning powerball number. Good luck, everyone. It is 23 and your power play multiplier is three. Let's take another look at those winning numbers. Remember there are multiple ways to win. We'll see you back here Monday night. Good night, everyone. It's time to play America's favorite jackpot game.

Powerball Drawing

St. Augustine's University hosts a free Student Care Concert to support grads, athletes and staff. 

Watch the free Student Care Concert at St. Augustine's University

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 drawings are held at 3 p.m. daily. They can be seen as live or on-demand video.

Good afternoon. I'm Melo. Welcome to this afternoon's drawing for Saturday, April 27th, 2024. Let's get started with Carolina pick three. The first pick three numbers three, the second is one, the third is zero and our pick three. Fireball number is four. Joining me for this afternoons drawing is our order from the Con and Jones L LP. Now let's move on to Carolina pick for the first four. Number is seven. The second is seven. The third is six. The fourth is one and our pick for fireball number is one. The North Carolina education lottery has contributed over $10 billion to education. Thanks for your support. You can also get your winning numbers each day at 3 p.m. and again at 11:22 p.m. Thanks for playing.

Daytime Pick 3 and Pick 4 Drawing

Tuesday and Friday Mega Millions Drawing.

>> ACROSS AMERICA WITH MEGA JACKPOTS, IT'S MEGA MILLIONS WILL ADDS UP AMERICA. I'M JOHN CROW. IT IS FRIDAY, APRIL. 26 IN TONIGHT'S MEGA MILLIONS JACKPOT IS AN ESTIMATED ANNUITY SITE 228 MILLION DOLLARS TO WIN THAT JACKPOT. YOU MUST MATCH THESE 5 WHITE. PLUS THAT GOLD MEGA BALL. NOW THEY CAN MAKE YOU A MILLIONAIRE TONIGHT. I FIRST WINNING NUMBER TONIGHT IS A 15 FOLLOWED BY 53. UP NEXT, WE HAVE 57 THAT'S FOLLOWED BY 23 IN YOUR FINAL WHITE BALL NUMBER FOR THIS FRIDAY EVENING IS 61 NOW FOR THE MEGA BALL NUMBER. THAT IS 9 AGAIN. TONIGHT'S WINNING NUMBERS ARE 15. 53. 57. 23.

Mega Millions Drawing

Boviet Solar plans to spend $294 million by the end of 2027 as part of the deal, state economic development officials said Friday. Commerce officials approved an incentives package worth up to $16.4 million.

<p>To, to all of you and we bring you greetings. I would like to also extend gratitude to other elected officials who are joining us today. If you'll please stand. Thank you. I want to also start by expressing how thrilled we are to have you here today. We are proud of our city here in Greenville. And I think that pride is evident in this room today and why wouldn't we be proud? Greenville is a thriving hub of, of eastern North Carolina. We have a growing population, a diverse based manufacturing manufacturers, top notch educational institutions, state of the art, medical facilities and vibrant art and entertainment scenes. The people in Greenville are as friendly and as talented as they come. We all work well together and that is a tremendous, tremendous key to progress. There are so many reasons to be proud of Greenville and today I'm thrilled that our city is getting even better with all of that being said, I would like to introduce to you a Greenville native and Chief Deputy Secretary of Commerce Jordan Richard. Well, thank you so much. Uh Mayor Pro Daniels. Uh it is a beautiful day and uh uh especially great day to be back home in Greenville, North Carolina. Uh So, on behalf of uh our North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Michelle Baker Sanders, uh Good afternoon. Uh Today really is not only the celebration of an incredible partnership uh with the city of Greenville, Pitt County, uh the Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance, the Department of Commerce, our, our partners across the state. Uh But it's also calls to celebrate uh some really exciting news and the first uh such announcement this year in Pitt County across the state in North Carolina, we are uh already ahead of our pace from last year. Uh Having a wonderful year in terms of economic development. Today is a wonderful announcement of that. Since January across the state, we've announced uh 39 projects and this will be our 40th, more than 3600 jobs across North Carolina and over $2.5 billion in economic development investment statewide. And today's news uh is also great as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of Greenville, North Carolina. Over those 250 years, we've seen Greenville change and evolve and the evolution of Greenville as a community is parallel to what we've seen across the state from an economy once dependent on agriculture and tobacco. Pitt County and Greenville is transformed into an economy that's supported by medicine uh and advanced manufacturing and clean energy jobs like we're here to talk about today. Uh having grown up here and watch that evolution and watch Downtown and Dickinson Avenue evolve and having gone to school across the street at CMXS Middle School, it's especially gratifying to be back and to be working on wonderful announcements like this. Uh And today, it's also an incredible honor to introduce uh someone who I've had the great pleasure of working for in Raleigh for the past 7.5 years. Uh He's been working to build a stronger North Carolina uh where everyone has as an opportunity to live in safe communities, get a quality education, uh have good access to great jobs and great health care. Uh And where everybody has a chance to live lives of purpose and abundance. And today he'll share with the Greenville community some outstanding news. Uh that'll help get us closer to North Carolina, North Carolina. That's more diverse, more inclusive works uh even more for all the people of this great state. Uh So it's my honor now to introduce to you the 75th governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper. Thank you so much, Greenville, aren't you proud of Jordan Witcher? Let me just say, Chief Deputy Secretary of the Department of Commerce. And uh you might notice that I have a lot of people in my administration who are from Eastern North Carolina. It's because I grew up here and I know the kind of people that they are. So I am so happy to be here. With you today, seeing so many friends and familiar faces uh and to celebrate what's gonna happen today. Uh Thank you Marquita for being here, Representative reader. Thank you for, for, for being here. Thank you representative for you. Uh Thank you, appreciate all of you guys candy. Thank you for coming. Very grateful for you coming and being part of this. Um II, I wanna thank Mayor Pro TEM Daniels and say thank you very much for your hard work here. But it's great to join with you today with an outstanding announcement for the city of Greenville, Pitt County, eastern North Carolina and I am our entire state. I am so proud to announce that Bovi at Solar, an international renewable energy company has selected North Carolina for its first North American solar panel manufacturing facility that will create 900 jobs and invest $294 million right here in Greenville, North Carolina. Our economists predict that this project will lift North Carolina's economy by more than $2.9 billion over the next 12 years. This economic development. When shows us how teamwork, teamwork and that's a fitting word here in front of Dowdy Ficklin Stadium, teamwork and our amazing workforce. Keep bringing advanced manufacturing jobs to our state here in Pitt County. You have a great legacy of manufacturing, making everything from life saving pharmaceuticals to packaging personal care products and now comes important components for clean renewable energy. North Carolina is becoming an epicenter for clean energy that's putting money in the pockets of North Carolina families and small businesses. And as we've learned in North Carolina the last few years, a clean energy economy is a strong economy, providing American security. North Carolina is a leader in that 19 billion in capital investments and nearly 16,000 good paying manufacturing jobs created here since 2021 with the fourth largest producer of solar energy in the country. And with our bipartisan clean power plan that will get us producing zero emission clean energy by 2050. That means a lot more solar panels need to be made right here in North Carolina. This announcement means that they're going to be made right here. And North Carolina's emergence as a clean energy leader has fueled our growth and helped set us apart as the number one state to do business in the country for two years in a row, we all get to celebrate that recognition and much of the credit goes to our well trained, dedicated and diverse workforce, the people of North Carolina, they make up the best workforce in the country. And Bovi at solar is gonna find out about that. And our university Chancellor Rogers, thank you for hosting this today. Our university and community college systems including East Carolina Pitt community College and our research institutions and workforce partnerships help North Carolina stay first in talent coupled with our central east location, East coast location and includes easy access to transportation infrastructure by land, plain sea. And of course our excellent quality of life. North Carolina continues to be a top choice and we don't take opportunities and announcement like these for granted because we know that companies like Bovi at solar can choose to locate anywhere in the world, but they chose us. And that's why we must continue to increase our investments in education, workforce training in our public schools and in early childhood education, that is absolutely critical. This announcement is the result of strong collaboration by company executives, elected officials across both aisles and economic development professionals. In addition to Secretary Sanders and the Department of Commerce, I'd like to thank our Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina that works so well led by Chris Chung works so well with our Department of Commerce, our North Carolina General Assembly. Those members are here today, our Golden Leaf Foundation, our Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance, Pitt County Electric Cities, Greenville Utilities Commission and the city of Greenville. At this time, I would like to, to welcome to the podium, the CEO of Bovi at Solar, Jimmy Shea. And I'd like to present him with a gift on behalf of the people of North Carolina, Jimmy. If you could come forward, Jimmy, this is a piece of pottery made one of our, by one of our famous artists uh Ben Owen. And on it has the great seal of the state of North Carolina and it has a part of it. Our, our motto, Si Quam Beri, which means to be rather than to seem, we want you to know in North Carolina we are who we say we are. And we look forward to this partnership for years and decades to come. Congratulations. Thank you for being here. Uh This is uh cup of the Chinese tea. Oh, outstanding. Thank you very much. Well, on behalf of the people of North Carolina, we accept this gift and hopefully we can sit and drink some tea and talk about the great success of this company. Thank you, Jimmy very much. Thank you. Mm Let uh let me begin to say uh by saying, thank you to the press, our partners and everyone who took the time to join us at today's event. Uh We are around to be receiving this investment grade and uh we are excited uh for how it uh will enable us to get our first us solar panel manufacturer facility up to and running and uh created, created uh economic uh uh our opportunities for the pul air. Yeah, for those who uh who aren't familiar. Let me introduce the about the poet founded in 2013 poet, solar head office in Unite, unite us Germany and our group uh headquarters in Vietnam. We have a proven track record of successful working with many of the industrial leading players. And our PV module are known for their power performance. And quality. This is evident because Bo has uh maintained its uh pos uh position at a Bloomberg new energy financing T one solar module manufacturers. Since 2017, we have been written at the top performance on people's PV module reliability uh score card since 2019 BB. Successfully completed. And in the independent e estimate of bo uh uh water solar manufacturers facility in 2022 the US uh solar industrial had been in K for water solar since we first uh entered the uh in 20 17 as of 2020 f uh three world solar PV sales and the PV models manufacturing capacity is more than three gigawatts and it's a shar a total of more than 6.6 gigawatt since uh in fabric, manually operating in us. Marketing. We are dedicated uh to helping to build uh American solar manufacturers uh with our new facility and uh filing, you know, cutting power in uh petit county, North Carolina and the, the natural. Uh let me tell you more about our plan for the manufacture plant. First one of the project, we use the building to manufacture our solar modules per to will including contracting uh start uh start off the art 500,000 to 60 thou uh 100,000 square foot factory on 34 acres to manufacture of PV cells which are used to build the solar panels. The location is expected to output the two gigawatts of solar and the two gigawatt uh PV cells since the future, uh uh will help bring our top performance PV modules to our variable clients to foster stronger connections with the independent uh power products. EP CS product uh developers, solar in, in installs and the contractors. We will have product uh they need uh in increase the deve deployment of uh uh U utilities, commercial industrial and uh dangerous solar project. We will require a strong workforce to product pro produce these solar panels so we will hearing about uh 900 employees uh over the next five years, job are expect expected to increase engineers, product workers. And so on, on behalf of uh B solar, I would like to thank everyone in involved in making this uh weight of product uh possible. The first is the governor uh Rio Cooper and uh and the secu uh secondary security Sanders and the North Korea development of the commerce tr uh territory uh D feature and the e economy uh economic uh developer partners of the North Korea Carolina, North Carolina General and Een North Korea uh communi Community College System, Go Goen Le found uh Foundation, Yanda down uh and the team at the Greenville East, North Carolina Islands, Kelly Andrew and the Peter County developer office, as well as the Pitter county government, Kathy Howard and the leadership team at the Greenville Utilities Commission City of the Greenville Electricity of the North Carolina and our advances today, our dream are coming true. We are upon the to begin pro product in our pe models in the US, bring our manufacturers exciting excellence to our most important uh solar market, creating jobs and the ma uh making up in impact. Solar energy in the United States is a bombing driving by its many benefits. Solar is an economic engine, a source of clean cheap um produce energy set and make a electricity affordable for customers and improve the air quality for health uh communities. We are surrendered to help uh future wills rep reputation for the green. I I can economic and uh manufacturing. We look forward to working with all of our partners, our path towards a cleaning future in the United. Thank you. I wanted to make sure I recognized Senator Candy Smith and Representative Glory Steam Brown and Representative reader, the legislature helped us a lot with this too. So, thank you very much for. Ok. Mhm. Good afternoon. My name is Anne Lord Huggins and I serve on the Pitt County Board of Commissioners. In conclusion of this momentous announcement, we must emphasize how truly honored we are that Pitt County was chosen over the many communities that were under consideration for this project. We are not only announcing the selection of Pitt County for a new industry that will bring strong economic growth to our community, but we are celebrating the collaboration that have developed and will continue to develop among Pitt County. Our partners and this esteem company. This announcement is the culmination of shared vision. This company's vision for its first us manufacturing facility in a business friendly asset, rich and welcoming community and Pitt County's vision for growth through strong industry partners that create highly skilled high paying jobs for our citizens. This vision will come to life in the, in the gr in the green corporate park and we look forward to our continued partnership to make this project successful. Beyond expectation. On behalf of Pitt County and the Board of commissioners, we extend our appreciation to each and every individual who has contributed their time, expertise and passion to make today possible. Most importantly, we extend heartfelt thanks to Bovier Sola for choosing us to communicate, to commemorate. Excuse me, this day, we would like to present a sculpture crafted by local artist Jordan Pera titled Connecting the Links May this day be a continuation of connections that will ensure your continued success. We are honored to be your partners and your chosen community. Welcome to your new home, Pitt County. OK. And I accept this on behalf of pick him and now and welcome to the podium, Thomas Taft Junior Board of Directors of Greenville, NENC Alliance for a toast. That's good. Not a force of guys. II, I had a prepared speech, but I'm gonna take this in a slightly different direction because II I, everyone has, has talked so much about the relationships and everything else. That got us to this point. But all I can say on behalf of Pitt County and on behalf of the Greenville NC Alliance is we won. We have won, we have beat out other communities, phobia technologies to come here. It's everything that we've all been working for, for years and years and years. I look at so many of you out here that uh were participants in that. And again, all I want to say is we won. Pitt County won North Carolina won. Thank you, Governor Cooper. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Thank you. I don't mind. That's fine. No, no, no, no. Well, I would just add that this is the single largest jobs announcement in Pitt County's history. Uh, I don't believe we've had a governor here in, uh, about 15 years to announce anything, uh, economic development, a new, a new, uh, I'm sorry. But, uh, but either way we're proud to have you here. We're proud to have you guys here. Cheers again to a victory for Pitt County here here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ok. Thank you so much. I'm ready to provide. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. They see. All right. Right. Yes. That's first. He said going across the way, come back in time.</p>

Murder trial underway for NC man accused of killing woman in home invasion

More On This