GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A judge denied Roger Self’s request to overturn his guilty plea in the 2018 Gaston County restaurant crash that killed his daughter and daughter-in-law. Self admitted to doing the crime.
Self’s attorney said he agrees with the judge’s decision.
The district attorney said it means Self’s family doesn’t have to live through the testimony of that horrible day again.
Self’s current attorney said Self pleaded guilty, but his trial attorney didn’t do enough to keep him out of prison.
That attorney said Self made the call that put him there.
Roger Self buckled over in tears five years ago when he pleaded guilty.
He talked for 13 minutes during his sentencing.
“I’m still in a state of disbelief,” Self said.
He said he was in a deep depression in 2018 when he stepped away from a family meal at a Bessemer City restaurant and drove a car through the wall, killing his daughter, a sheriff’s deputy, and his daughter-in-law, and severely wounding several family members.
He accepted a plea of a minimum of 46 years in prison, then last year claimed his attorney did too little to defend him.
Channel 9’s Ken Lemon spoke with that attorney, Rick Beam, by phone on Wednesday.
“His options were discussed with him at length in terms of what he could do. Multiple defenses, if there were any,” Beam said.
Beam said he agrees with the judge’s decision.
Lemon asked, “Do you think his conviction should be overturned?”
“No. He made the decision to enter the plea. That was his choice,” Beam said.
District Attorney Travis Page said prosecutors should expect appeals.
He said Self’s attorneys can still appeal this decision.
There is an important distinction with his former defense attorney.
He did not say the Self is guilty, just that the conviction should not be overturned because Self pleaded guilty.
The judge considering the case made that same point.
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