Local

Trial for man accused of killing 3 in 2008 starts Tuesday

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An unusual capital murder case is scheduled to start Tuesday for a man accused of murdering three people in northwest Charlotte.

People living along Patricia Ryan Drive are still rattled by the crime.

It's taken nearly six years for Justin Hurd to go to trial for the murders of Kinshasa Wagstaff, her boyfriend Kevin Young and her niece, Jasmine Hines.

Police said Wagstaff and Young were killed inside their home. They found Hines just miles down the road dead from a gunshot wound. It happened on Feb. 8, 2008.

People living in the community didn't want their identity revealed. They are still shaken up by what happened on their street.

"I was scared. All I remember are flames and a lot of police," one neighbor said.

It took more than a year after the crime for police to catch Hurd. He will stand trial Tuesday and, if convicted, he could be put to death.

Cases like this are rare. In all of last year, juries across North Carolina only sentenced one person to die. In Mecklenburg County, the District Attorney's Office only tried one death penalty case.