Lake Norman man denied bond in ‘cold-blooded execution’ sparked by road rage
A judge took mere seconds to deny bond Tuesday morning to a 75-year-old charged with fatally shooting a father of three in a road rage incident near their Lake Norman homes and trying to kill the man’s terrified children.
“I believe this is one of the clearest examples of the danger of a defendant potentially to others that I have ever seen,” Judge Donald Cureton said in a Catawba County courtroom.
He ordered Terrell Eugene Giddens back to jail as he awaits trial in the October killing of 40-year-old Jeffery Michael Guida. “The bond will remain no bond.”
Cureton said he found “no conditions of bond that would provide for the safety of the community,” including Guida’s family. Giddens will stay in jail until his next court appearance, on Oct. 13, Cureton ruled.
Giddens is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder.
About 40 supporters of Guida’s family packed one side of the courtroom, some wearing pink “Justice for Jeff” T-shirts. They remained silent during the hearing.
Defendant wants to live with girlfriend in another county
Moments before Cureton’s ruling, Giddens’ lawyer asked the judge to set Giddens’ bond “in the $350,000 range” so he could move from his Sherrills Ford home to live with his girlfriend in her Forsyth County home.
Lawyer Robert Campbell of Taylorsville cited what he called Giddens’ lack of a criminal past, his 36 years with General Motors, his military service during the Vietnam War and honorable discharge, his past membership in a local Lions Club and his assistance to fellow veterans.
After retiring from GM, Giddens worked in real estate from 2004 to 2018, Campbell said, and he attends church.
Giddens is no flight risk, Campbell said, saying Giddens has lived in the same home all 26 of his years in the state.
His three-bedroom brick ranch home and land have a total assessed value of $897,300, Catawba County public tax records show.
Giddens has been in a committed relationship for four years and has two adult children “with whom he maintains a good relationship,” Campbell said in his bond motion.
Campbell said Giddens shot Guida only after he’d been tailgated and Guida angrily confronted him. Giddens never left his vehicle at first when Guida left his and approached, Campbell said.
Eyewitnesses told deputies that a driver shot Guida after both stopped and left their vehicles, according to an October Sheriff’s Office news release.
Guida died outside the driver’s door of his Jeep Wagoneer, according to a Catawba County probable cause affidavit.
The shooter fired multiple rounds at Guida after Guida was initially shot and fell to the ground, the affidavit filed by a Catawba County sheriff’s investigator 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.
Defendant tried to kill man’s kids, prosecutor says
Tim Gould, Catawba County chief assistant district attorney, painted a different picture to the judge than Campbell’s.
“It was more of an execution,” Gould said. “Cold-blooded, calculated, malicious. He was not afraid of Jeff Guida. He decided to kill him because he was mad.”
Dressed in black-and-white striped jail clothes, Giddens briefly shook his head “no” as Gould described the killing.
Giddens retrieved a loaded AR-15 rifle from the backseat of his Buick Lacrosse and fired multiple shots at Guida, killing him, Gould said. Giddens fired more shots at him after Guida fell to the ground outside his vehicle, Gould said.
Then he fired bullets that tore through both sides of Guida’s vehicle, trying to kill his daughters, ages 13, 11 and two, Gould told the judge.
“It’s a miracle that they weren’t killed, in my opinion,” Gould said.
Giddens has a record, Gould said. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to simple assault and was ordered into an anger management program, Gould told the judge. In 2018, he was found guilty of injury to personal property and was ordered to pay restitution.
And Giddens fled the scene and tried to conceal what he did, Gould said. He kayaked onto Lake Norman from his home and tossed the AR-15 into the water, along with a bag containing the clothes he’d worn, the prosecutor said.
Outside the courtroom after the hearing, Guida’s friends and colleagues recalled a man they said had always given to others.
“He was just an all-around good guy,” Karen Church, who worked with Guida at Lake Norman Women’s Specialists, an OB-GYN practice in Mooresville, told The Charlotte Observer. Guida was the office manager, she said.
“He was a very giving person who impacted all of our lives,” former colleague Megan Black said.
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM.