Lake Norman homeowner charged in ‘road rage’ killing seeks release from jail
A 75-year-old with an AR-15 allegedly killed a father in a road rage incident as the man’s three daughters watched from the backseat, according to new court documents.
Then he shot at the girls, fled the scene and threw his rifle and other evidence into Lake Norman.
Police in October arrested Terrell Eugene Giddens in the shooting and killing of 40-year-old Jeffery Michael Guida. He told police he followed Guida after he was tailgated. Giddens was “unable to provide a reason” for firing into the Jeep Wagoneer where the girls, ages 13, 11 and two, sat, according to a Catawba County probable cause affidavit reviewed by The Charlotte Observer.
The affidavit sheds new light on the incident as Giddens readies to ask a judge to set bail so he can get out of jail while he awaits trial in the killing and on three counts of attempted first-degree murder. The request has outraged Guida’s family.
Guida was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds at the entrance to his neighborhood at the intersection of Island Point Road and North View Harbour Drive, the Catawba County sheriff’s office previously said. There, he lived with his wife and children.
Police arrested Giddens at his home two-tenths of a mile away from the Sherrills Ford crime scene.
He told police that after the shooting, he drove home, put the clothes he had been wearing into a trash bag and changed. Then he pushed his kayak offshore, paddled to mile-marker 17B and tossed the bag and rifle into the water, according to court records.
Suspect was Lions Club member, Army tank commander in Vietnam, lawyer says
Giddens’ lawyer says he should be released because he “has no criminal convictions, no history of violence and no history of flight to avoid prosecution or failure to appear at court proceedings.”
Robert Campbell of Taylorsville wrote in a motion for bond modification filed in Catawba County Criminal Superior Court in Newton that Gibbons “is presumed innocent” and “has significant ties to the community.”
He retired after 36 years with General Motors, Campbell said. He then obtained his North Carolina real estate license and was a licensed realtor from 2004 to 2018.
Giddens has lived in the same home all 26 of his years in North Carolina and has been a Lions Club member and a volunteer assisting fellow veterans, Campbell said. He attends Pfafftown Christian Church, the lawyer added.
His three-bedroom brick ranch home and land have a total assessed value of $897,300, Catawba County public tax records show.
Giddens was drafted into the Army in 1969 and “served active duty tours in Vietnam and Germany as a tank commander until his honorable discharge in 1971,” Campbell wrote.
His “support system through his family is stable,” Campbell said. He’s been in a committed relationship for four years and has two adult children “with whom he maintains a good relationship,” Campbell said in the motion.
GoFundMe raises $23,331 for family of shooting victim
In a GoFundMe started May 9 for Guida’s wife and kids, his brother and sister urged the public to protest Giddens’ release during the hearing on his motion at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Catawba County Justice Center, 100 Government Drive in Newton.
“Thank you so much for supporting our family through this horrific time,” Amy Revell and Adam Guida wrote. “We have much love for how caring this community has been. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
The GoFundMe has raised $23,331 from 156 donors.
Eyewitnesses recount the Oct. 12 fatal shooting
Eyewitnesses told deputies that a driver shot Guida after both stopped and left their vehicles, according to the October Sheriff’s Office news release.
Guida was fatally shot outside the driver’s door of his Jeep Wagoneer, according to the affidavit filed by a Catawba County sheriff’s investigator.
The shooter fired multiple rounds at Guida after Guida was initially shot and fell to the ground, the affidavit states.
Eyewitnesses described the shooter and his vehicle to deputies, which led to Giddens’ arrest at his nearby home.
Giddens told investigators that he’d been tailgated on eastbound Island Point Road by a driver who turned onto Northview Harbour Drive, the affidavit states.
“Giddens decided to turn wide and attempted to follow,” according to the affidavit.
Guida left his vehicle, “yelling while holding his cellular telephone,” Giddens told deputies, according to the affidavit. “Giddens positioned his red Buick Lacrosse behind” Guida’s vehicle, got out, took the AR-15 from the backseat, pointed the rifle at Guida and fired multiple shots, the affidavit states.
Giddens told investigators that he knew Guida was holding only a phone, according to the affidavit.
“Giddens briefly ceased rifle fire before turning his attention to the Jeep Wagoneer,” according to the affidavit. “Giddens admitted he had fired multiple rounds into the rear of the Jeep Wagoneer and was unable to provide a reason.”