Duplin drug investigation leads to 4 arrests

North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday recommended that criminal suspects who may need psychiatric treatment receive initial mental health evaluations in county jails through telehealth, rather than in hospital emergency departments as outlined in last year’s “Iryna’s Law.”

The House Select Committee on Involuntary Commitment and Public Safety released the recommendations about six months after the General Assembly passed the law, which was intended to keep more suspects in custody while awaiting trial. The measure was named for Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman who moved to Charlotte in 2022 and was fatally stabbed on a city train in August. The man accused in her killing, DeCarlos Brown, was found incapable of proceeding in state court last week after a mental evaluation. He also faces federal charges.

The committee said telehealth evaluations in jails for people already in custody would reduce wait times, transportation problems, logistical challenges, and safety concerns. The recommendations would also expand the number of medical providers eligible to perform psychiatric evaluations and call on state-funded regional behavioral health organizations to find ways to use mobile crisis units in the involuntary commitment process.

Any changes would require legislation and approval by the General Assembly.

Hospital leaders had objected to the law’s requirement that some defendants be taken to emergency departments or other crisis facilities for psychiatric evaluations. The North Carolina Hospital Association said Tuesday it supported the committee’s work and would keep working with law enforcement and mental health leaders on treatment “in the most secure setting.”

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association, which had previously opposed broader jail-based evaluations, said it supports the recommendation because it applies only to people already in custody.

Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, said the recommendations did not fully address staffing shortages at state psychiatric facilities, where some beds go unused because of limited staff. Committee co-chair Rep. Tim Reeder, a physician, said funded positions exist, but the state has struggled to recruit workers.

Gov. Josh Stein, who signed Iryna’s Law last year after criticizing it as flawed, said through a spokesperson that he was “pleased to see lawmakers taking a hard look at involuntary commitment across the state.”

A joint narcotics investigation in Duplin County led to multiple arrests and the seizure of drugs, firearms, and cash, according to the Beulaville Police Department.

Deputies with the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office assisted Beulaville police in executing a search warrant April 7 at a home on Evans Street in Beulaville, authorities said. The residence had been under investigation for suspected narcotics activity and other alleged crimes.

Investigators said they recovered about 22 grams of suspected cocaine, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia during the search. Thomas Smith of Warsaw was arrested after officers said he was found with crack cocaine.

Smith was charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule II controlled substance.

Alton Murphy, who was at the residence, was cited and released on a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Authorities said information from the investigation led to a second search warrant at a Warsaw residence linked to Smith. The Duplin County Sheriff’s Office Special Response Team executed that warrant.

During that search, officials said they seized additional cocaine, marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, firearms, suspected moonshine, and nearly $10,000 in cash.

Smith was also charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule II controlled substance, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule VI controlled substance. He was held without bond at the Duplin County Jail.

Two other people were also arrested in connection with the investigation, according to police.

One woman was charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule II controlled substance, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule VI controlled substance. She was given a $75,000 secured bond.

Another person was charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver a Schedule VI controlled substance, and possession of controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school.

A Manteo man was arrested and charged in the 1990 killing of a New Jersey woman, according to the Vernon Township Police Department.

Robert William McCaffrey Jr., 54, was taken into custody around 8 p.m. April 10, 2026, by a multistate law enforcement task force, Vernon police said. Representatives of the New Jersey State Police, Vernon Township Police Detective Bureau, and Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office traveled to Dare County and coordinated with the Dare County Sheriff’s Office on the arrest.

The Dare County Sheriff’s Office said the Dare County Joint Tactical Team conducted the vehicle stop with assistance from the Currituck County SWAT team.

McCaffrey was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and second-degree burglary in connection with the June 1990 homicide of Lisa Marie McBride, who lived in the Highland Lakes section of Vernon Township, police said.

He was being held at the Dare County Detention Center pending extradition to Sussex County, New Jersey.

“This decades-old cold case was solved through significant advancements in DNA technology, combined with the relentless investigative efforts of detectives in the New Jersey State Police, the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Vernon Township Police Department. Robert McCaffrey Jr.’s arrest marks a major breakthrough, bringing long-awaited progress toward justice for the family of Lisa Marie McBride,” the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office stated. “McBride would have been 27 years old when her remains were discovered in 1990.”

Anyone with information about the Lisa McBride case was asked to contact the Vernon Township Police Detective Bureau at 973-764-6155.

In an unrelated case, McCaffrey previously served time in prison after being convicted of obstructing justice in connection with the 2012 disappearance of his wife, Marjorie “Gayle” McCaffrey, in Charleston, South Carolina. She was 36 at the time.

According to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, detectives “charged Robert McCaffrey with obstructing justice after they determined he had lied to them about various elements of the investigation, including a farewell letter supposedly from Gayle McCaffrey that was determined to have been fabricated. He was convicted of that charge and was released in 2023.”

Anyone with information about the Gayle McCaffrey case was asked to call Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Detective Barry Goldstein at 843-554-2241.

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a long-running lawsuit over retiree health benefits, as lawyers for the State Health Plan and state treasurer asked the court to decertify a class of about 220,000 retirees.

Before 2011, vested state employees were promised no-cost health care in retirement. In 2011, the Legislature allowed the North Carolina State Health Plan to charge retirees premiums. A group of retirees sued, alleging breach of contract.

In 2016, Superior Court Judge Edwin Wilson certified the retirees as a class. In 2022, the Supreme Court, then controlled 4-3 by Democrats, ruled that the retirees had a right to lifetime enrollment in a premium-free insurance plan and sent the case back to trial court to determine damages.

Now, lawyers for the Health Plan and the treasurer argue the plaintiffs’ claims are too different to proceed as a class action.

Mark Jones, a lawyer for the Health Plan, said an expert for the retirees did not “prove liability in one stroke” as required. Because of that failure, Jones said, “the 2016 class cannot be sustained.”

Mark Carpenter, a lawyer for the retirees, said decertifying the class would be excessive.

“What they are asking you to do is throw the baby out with the bath water,” Carpenter said.

If the court agrees, retirees could be required to file individual claims for compensation.

The court now has a 5-2 Republican majority and recently reversed other prior rulings, including a 2022 school funding decision in the Leandro case.

Justice Richard Dietz, a Republican, led much of the questioning Tuesday. “Our job as courts, in class action, is to defend the rights of the absent class members. That’s the whole purpose of all the protections that we’ve built into class certification,” he said. “If we know the class definition is wrong, we need to fix it.”

In a partial dissent in 2022, Republican Justices Tamara Barringer and Phil Berger Jr. said the trial court should determine whether retirees reasonably relied on a promise of no-cost insurance, citing caveats in some state materials. Chief Justice Paul Newby did not participate in that decision.

Retirees at the hearing said they were frustrated by the delay. Boyd Bennett, a former prisons director who worked 36 years for the state, said requiring individual cases “would swamp the court system all across the state.” He added, “But I gave that up to serve the public and plus to have these benefits that we were told we would have.”

Some plaintiffs have died. The lead plaintiff remains I. Beverly Lake Jr., a former Supreme Court chief justice who died in 2019.