Pastor settles for $4.4M after years in prison for crime he didn’t commit; town denies wrongdoing

December 16, 2024

A North Carolina pastor who spent 8 years in prison has settled for $4.4 million after filing a lawsuit against the town of Winterville, claiming it withheld evidence that proved his innocence.

The Christian Post reports that Rev. Darron Carmon spent 8 years in prison after being convicted of armed robbery in 1994. Carmon was released in 2002 for good behavior.

The pastor filed the civil suit after his conviction was overturned by Pitt County Superior Court Judge Marvin Blount in 2022 and after receiving a pardon of innocence last month from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

The town of Winterville says Carmon was identified by a store clerk as the suspect in the armed robbery of a grocery store in 1993.

However, there were discrepancies in Carmon’s height and the description given by the clerk as well as questions regarding fingerprint evidence from the store that did not match Carmon’s prints.

Winterville town released a statement to the Christian Post saying that the latent fingerprints remained on file but were not adequately analyzed until 2021.

In that statement, the town claimed: “North Carolina law enforcement did not have the technology to transmit or search palm prints in a statewide database until 2008, and the first national searchable palm print identification database was not available until 2013, 20 years after this armed robbery.”

The town of Winterville strongly denies any wrongdoing and, in a press release following a court-ordered mediation said, “Neither the Town nor the Officers paid any of the settlement proceeds, as the full settlement amount will be paid by the insurance companies. As part of the settlement, all parties specifically agreed that neither the Town nor the Officers admitted to any wrongdoing.”

Photo: top, Credit: Facebook/Prison Fellowship