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Man to serve life sentence after killing woman with crossbow in Belmont

BELMONT, N.C. — A man accused of killing a woman with a crossbow in Belmont will soon begin his life sentence.

A jury found James Rick guilty of killing his cousin by marriage in 2019.

Channel 9′s Ken Lemon was in the courtroom last week when the woman accused of helping cover it all up took the stand. You would expect a woman to help her boyfriend facing a life sentence, but Melinda Robinson said she has seen too much.

“I started screaming, ‘What have you done? What have you done, you killer?’” she said.

Robinson said back in May 2019, James Rick, who also goes by Mike, suspected that she stole money from him and became enraged. She said he sent threatening texts to her and her friend, Joyce Rick.

Joyce Rick is related to James Rick by marriage.

Robinson said they were then lured back to a home on Harmony Trail with a promise of a profitable drug deal. She said they were told James Rick was gone.

When they pulled into the driveway, with Joyce Rick at the wheel, Robinson said James Rick suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She said he was a little more than a car length away.

“I can see in the light, Mike come out. He had the crossbow,” Robinson said.

That is when Robinson said she grabbed the gear shift and threw the car into reverse. She told jurors she leaned back as the arrow came through her window and hit Joyce Rick.

“I looked over and she fell on my shoulder,” she said.

According to Robinson, her boyfriend pulled out the arrow, pushed over Joyce Rick and reminded her he is in control.

“I’m not going down for this. I’m not going down for this. I will kill you and kill myself. You see what I’m capable of,” she said.

James Rick’s attorney claimed he tripped and accidentally fired an arrow into the moving car. Jurors also heard testimony that he sent death threats by text before the car arrived.

Robinson said James Rick made her follow him to Lake Wylie, but said she could not see what he did in the dark.

“I said, ‘What did you do? What did you do?’ He said I put an umbrella on the gas pedal and I dumped her body in the lake,” she said in court.

Robinson, who was also charged as an accessory to murder, admitted she had drugs later that night and her memory was shaky.

“Very little. I did partake in some of the drug use,” she said.

Prosecutors asked her if she had a clear memory about the order in which places she went that night. Robinson said she did not.

The defense said James Rick never intended to kill anyone.

Robinson told jurors what she saw was no accident.


(WATCH BELOW: 1 person shot, 2 officers injured in officer-involved shooting in Belmont, authorities say)