‘I’ve earned it’: Man in prison for murdering 2 young women says he’s remorseful

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Danny Hembree -- called Gaston County’s most notorious killer -- knows he will never be a free man again.

He is in prison for the gruesome killings of two young women more than a decade ago. He also confessed to three other murders, although he never went on trial for them.

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Channel 9 reporter Ken Lemon recently spoke with Hembree in prison, where the convicted killer shared things he had never shared before.

The man who once feared he would be dead from health problems by now appeared to be in good shape. His eyes reflected the seriousness of the conversation with Lemon. You can’t see them though, because Lemon was only allowed to bring a voice recorder with him into the Warren Correctional Institution. It captured Hembree’s admission that he belongs there but insisted that he is not a murderer.

Danny Hembree was every bit the character he was when he last spoke with Lemon 10 years ago, when he was sentenced to die for the murder of 17-year-old Heather Catterton.

“You want to go ahead and die now?” Lemon asked.

“I’d like to get it on out of the way because I got to do it anyway,” Hembree replied.

He sat face-to-face at a small table with Lemon -- a few feet apart -- in a room with a guard, a voice recorder and a stark admission.

“I would describe myself as a person that is very remorseful for the wasted life that he’s led, lived,” Hembree said.

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Hembree was arrested for a string of robberies in 2009. That’s when he confessed to five murders. He said he killed two women out of state, and Deborah Ratchford in Gastonia in 1992. He also admitted to what, at the time, were the recent killings of Heather Catterton and Randi Saldana.

Catterton was killed after heavy drug use in the basement of Hembree’s mother’s house, where Hembree lived. Her body was later dumped on a rural road. The same happened to Saldana days later -- her body was also burned in a failed attempt to conceal the crime.

Hembree explained in detail how he choked and beat them to death in three recorded police interviews.

“Killed Randi same reason, just wanted to,” Hembree said.

And later, “if those girls would not have been with me that night, they would not be dead,” Hembree said.

“I did not intentionally kill those girls and if I could bring them back, I would, but I can’t,” he said in his police interviews.

When he spoke with Lemon, Hembree claimed those confessions -- all of them -- were lies. He said he hoped to confuse investigators with claims that he said couldn’t be proved.

“At that time, I just wanted to make it look like there was a monster running around, a serial killer, and that was not me,” Hembree said.

He wasn’t charged with the two out-of-state murders he confessed to. No bodies were reportedly found.

Prosecutors charged him with the murder of Deborah Ratchford but didn’t bring that case to trial. Her body was found in a Gastonia cemetery.

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Hembree claimed Catterton and Saldana died of drug overdoses because of him and he only disposed of their bodies, but didn’t intentionally kill them.

“It didn’t happen so. It freaking didn’t happen, you know,” Hembree said.

That claim didn’t wash with Randi Saldana’s sister at trial.

“You are a monster,” said Shellie Nations, Saldana’s sister, during Hembree’s trial.

Despite new apologies and regret, she is still not buying it.

“Women that are in his presence become dead,” Nations said. “That’s not just by accident.”

Hembree was sentenced to death for Catterton’s murder. The state Supreme Court later overturned that sentence, ruling in part that there was too much evidence from Saldana’s death used in Catterton’s trial.

Hembree pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in both cases and was eventually sentenced to 50 years behind bars.

The man who now has a pacemaker and liver problems says he deserves to be in prison for the rest of his life.

“I’ve earned it. I’ve earned, yes sir. This is what I chose for myself. And this is what I’ve got to do to pay for it,” Hembree said. “There is just not enough ‘sorry’ in the world to apologize my way out of here.”

Shellie Nations agrees that Hembree belongs behind bars, but she said if he really wants to do some good, then he should own up to the murder of Deborah Ratchford too.

“Tell us what happened with Ms. Deborah Ratchford,” Nations said. “Give her family that peace. They deserve that.”

The man who once on death row said there is one thing that must be shared from behind those walls.

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“I’m hoping that just maybe some kid will see this and say, ‘I don’t want to wind up like him. I don’t want to wind up behind bars for the rest of my life,’” Hembree said.

Hembree said he is ready to die and meet God. He believes he will be reincarnated and get another life and another chance to make up for the suffering he has caused in this life.

Channel 9 reached out to former district attorney Locke Bell who tried the cases against Danny Hembree. He didn’t want to comment on camera but added the words he echoed after the trials: “Danny Hembree will die in prison.”

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