DA: Insufficient evidence to pursue murder charge in Kyron Hinton's death

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Tuesday that investigators haven't found enough evidence to prosecute anyone for murder in the death of Kyron Hinton last year.

Hinton, whose beating by law enforcement in April 2018 cost four officers their jobs, died Feb. 23, 2019, of cocaine toxicity and a neck injury that might indicate homicide, according to an autopsy.

Vicki Hinton has said that she believes her son was involved in an altercation with someone at a house on Creech Road the night he died that caused his death.

"In my heart of hearts, I believe he’s been murdered," she said last year.

But Freeman said she notified Hinton's family Monday that she wouldn't be moving forward on any murder charges.

Vicki Hinton said Tuesday that someone needs to be held accountable, and she won't let up until that happens. Although her son suffered from mental illness and drug addiction, his life still mattered, she said.

Community activist Diana Powell said the family is once again disappointed with the justice system.

"That was public knowledge that he had struggles, he had demons that he fought with," Powell said. "It was just a sad, unfortunate situation because, no matter what his life, the things that he struggled with, his life still mattered. We cannot just treat him like he was nothing."

The family said people in the community went to investigators with what they knew, but it fell on deaf ears.

WRAL News learned that Wake County paid Kyron Hinton more than $80,000 to settle a lawsuit in which he alleged a Wake County Sheriff's Office deputy used excessive force during an April 3, 2018, incident.

Vicki Hinton said last year that an argument over some of that settlement money might have occurred the night her son died.

In that 2018 incident, officers responded to reports of a man with a gun yelling at passing cars near the intersection of North Raleigh Boulevard and Yonkers Road and tried to take a delirious Kyron Hinton into custody.

Wake County Deputy Cameron Broadwell unleashed his K-9 on Hinton to bring him to the ground, and several other law enforcement officers piled on to subdue Hinton and handcuff him.

Hinton was unarmed at the time and suffered extensive injuries.

Broadwell pleaded guilty last year to failure to discharge his duties in connection with the incident and agreed to forfeit his law enforcement certification. Sheriff Gerald Baker then fired him.

The State Highway Patrol fired Troopers Michael Blake and Tabithia Davis and Sgt. Rodney Goswick in connection with the incident.

Blake pleaded guilty in January to failure to discharge his duties and agreed to surrender his law enforcement certification as part of a plea deal in which several felony charges were dropped.

Blake is accused of kicking Hinton and ordering Davis to hit Hinton with her flashlight. Davis is accused of using the flashlight to hit Hinton in the head. Both, along with Goswick, also were accused of lying to Highway Patrol investigators about their use of force in the incident.

Charges are still pending against Davis and Goswick.