After a highly regarded educator was killed last June in a west-central North Carolina town, police there said they were able to identify a neighbor as a suspect because of a selfie on his camera and a clump of missing hair.
Maggie Daniels, 31, was found dead inside her apartment on June 28. Police said Daniels died from strangulation.
Over the weekend, Newton police arrested 34-year-old Sharman Odom and charged him with Daniels' murder.
After a court hearing, Odom's mother tried to knock the microphones out of the hands of a WSOC-TV reporter and assaulted two photographers. The reporter and photographer were not injured, but another photographer was cut on his face. As a result of the altercation, Darlene Odom was charged with three counts of assault and ordered to appear in court next month.
Police said Monday that Odom and Daniels lived in the same apartment complex but there was no evidence that they knew each other.
Investigators think Daniels fought back when Odom attacked her in her unlocked apartment a day earlier. Police say Odom lost a clump of hair and was scratched on his nose and below an eye -- injuries that officers found in "selfies" taken on Odom's smartphone the day Daniels was believed to have been killed.
Odom’s family stormed out of the courthouse seconds after a judge told him he could face life in prison or even the death penalty if convicted. Odom’s mother was so enraged she tried to knock the microphone out of reporter Sarah Rosario’s hand. She then pushed a photographer’s camera and another reporter’s camera.
"Do you have anything to say about the charges against Odom?" Rosario asked.
"Get out of my face," she said as she attacked the camera.
WSOC-TV tracked down court records showing Odom has been arrested for assaulting and robbing three women in Charlotte in the last four years, but charges were dismissed in each case. All three of the alleged attacks happened at local motels.
In one of those cases, prosecutors said the alleged victim was a prostitute who agreed to have sex with Odom for money. Sources told WSOC-TV a second alleged victim was also a prostitute who did not cooperate with police. Records do not indicate why the third set of charges was dismissed.
