NC judge hears evidence against Orange County woman accused of shooting mom in head

An Orange County woman shot her mother after a night of drinking, drugs and an argument that started over a Bible, according to witnesses who testified during a Thursday court hearing.

Paula Lee Decoteau, 51, is accused of shooting 75-year-old Cheryl Garner Medlin on Dec. 11 on Spruce Pine Trail, near the Orange-Durham county line.

Medlin died hours later at Duke Hospital from a single gunshot to the head.

Decoteau is charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. She has been held in jail without bail since her arrest.

District Court Judge Todd Roper silently considered the facts for more than 10 minutes Thursday before finding enough evidence, or probable cause, to send the case to the grand jury for an indictment. He dismissed a fifth, misdemeanor charge accusing Decoteau of assaulting a sheriff’s deputy.

If the grand jury agrees with Roper, the case will be tried in Orange County Superior Court.

Decoteau could face life in prison without parole if she is convicted of first-degree murder. The only other possible sentence in North Carolina is the death penalty, which Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jeff Nieman has pledged not to seek in any capital cases.

Alcohol, drugs and an argument

Decoteau’s daughter Angel Bowman and her daughter’s then-boyfriend, Troy Burns, testified Thursday about the shooting, as Decoteau kept her eyes trained on the witness stand, smiling slightly and twisting her chair at the defense table side to side.

Burns, who avoided contact with both women Thursday, said he had been living with Bowman and Decoteau in Medlin’s three-bedroom home for a few months.

Medlin had just returned home from a stay in a rehabilitation center after injuring her hip and was in the living room when Decoteau returned home that night after drinking at a bar with a friend and using meth, he said.

Decoteau came into the bedroom where he and Bowman were watching TV to tell them about a man she had met, Burns and Bowman testified. She then went to the living room, where Medlin asked for help finding a purple Bible.

The women started arguing, and Decoteau began to blame her mother for her husband’s fatal accident in March 2020, Bowman said. Decoteau accused Medlin of being responsible, because Decoteau’s husband was drinking that night and Medlin didn’t let him stay at her house, Bowman testified.

She didn’t think much of the argument, Bowman said, because Decoteau often yells when she’s drinking.

Shot fired, call to 911 delayed

But this time, after the argument ended, they heard a single gunshot and footsteps moving down the hall, Bowman and Burns testified. Burns said he stopped Bowman from leaving the bedroom when her mother called for her.

A few minutes later, he opened the bedroom door to find Decoteau standing naked in the bathroom across the hall, they testified.

“Troy starts slowly creeping down the hallway, and I’m sitting there, just looking at her,” Bowman said.

Decoteau told her not to go in the living room, saying, “Angel, come here. I just shot your grandma. I just shot that (expletive),” Bowman said. “I remember thinking, what in the hell is wrong with you?”

As Decoteau put on her clothes, Burns and Bowman attempted to call 911, but she took their cellphones, taking Bowman to Decoteau’s bedroom. She told her daughter to sit on the bed, and Burns followed them, hoping to find the .22-caliber rifle that officials said was used to kill Medlin, he said.

Decoteau told him to sit on the bed beside her daughter, he said.

She was agitated, knocking knick-knacks off a shelf and walking around the room talking to herself about whether to leave or kill them and herself, Burns and Bowman testified. As she bumped a nightstand, the rifle fell to the floor, and Burns said he suggested they get high in an attempt to distract her.

Decoteau let him leave to get a lighter and a pipe for smoking drugs, giving him an opportunity to grab the rifle, wrap it in a sheet and take it outside, Burns said. He returned to the bedroom, where they stayed for 15 to 30 minutes, until Decoteau returned their cell phones and let them call 911, he said.

They waited outside for the sheriff’s deputies to arrive, Bowman and Burns said.

History of police calls, possible defense

Sheriff’s Office public records provided upon a request from The News & Observer showed deputies had responded to 20 calls since 2018 at the home on Spruce Pine Trail or for incidents involving Decoteau and her daughter. Those incidents included theft and trespassing, but also domestic incidents, assaults and suicide attempts.

The reports list Decoteau as the victim in several assaults involving her late husband Michael Terlep, including one incident in 2020 when he was accused of hitting Decoteau in the face and choking her. A year earlier, Bowman had been accused of assaulting her previous boyfriend and an Orange County sheriff’s deputy.

In December 2020, Bowman was accused of assaulting Decoteau, records show. Decoteau was accused three days later of threatening Medlin before leaving her mother’s home. Deputies advised Medlin that she could seek a domestic violence protective order, records showed.

Records show that Decoteau has two previous convictions, including a 2019 misdemeanor conviction for hit and run in Durham County that led to probation and a referral to drug court.

In 2007, she was convicted of misdemeanor assault on a government official in Orange County, receiving probation and community service, records show.

Orange County Chief Public Defender Woodrena Baker-Harrell hinted at a possible defense in her arguments Thursday, saying Medlin did not die from the gunshot wound, but she instead died after being taken off life support hours later at the hospital.

“What we have is she was shot, and she was still breathing,” Baker-Harrell said, acknowledging that the testimony might support assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. However, the state “has not met the burden for probable cause as far as homicide,” she said.

As for the kidnapping charges, Baker-Harrell said the victims told slightly different stories about what happened after the shooting and failed to show they were forced to stay with Medlin.

In her counter-argument, Assistant District Attorney Kelley Gauger said Burns and Bowman didn’t feel safe trying to get away, and that Burns, in particular, decided to stay and protect his girlfriend. Bowman learned her grandmother had died from her injuries only after her sister called later to say they had taken her off life support, she said.