ROCKINGHAM — A convicted felon is accused of shooting someone during a burglary-turned-robbery of less than $50.
According to warrants, 25-year-old Hunter Wayne Meece broke into a home around 1:15 a.m. Feb. 22 on Aleo Ninth Street in East Rockingham.
The home was occupied by four people, warrants state.
Meece allegedly shot one of the occupants in the leg with an unspecified-caliber handgun and investigators with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office say another was assaulted.
Warrants allege that Meece stole $40 during the incident.
Meece was arrested March 3 and charged with: first-degree burglary; robbery with a dangerous weapon; assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury; and possession of a firearm by a felon.
He was booked into the Richmond County Jail where he is being held on a $500,000 secured bond. Meece is scheduled to appear in court March 14.
This isn’t Meece’s first time involved in a robbery investigation.
In 2020, Meece was convicted of accessory after the fact of robbery with a dangerous weapon and attempted possession of a firearm by a felon, according to records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction.
He served the full minimum sentence of one year and five months. However, he went back to prison less than three months after being let out on a post-release revocation, serving another nine months.
Records show Meece was first convicted in 2016 of misdemeanor larceny and violation of a protective order — charged as an adult at the age of 17.
The following year, he was convicted of misdemeanor larceny and larceny of a motor vehicle.
Meece was convicted in 2018 of attempted felony breaking and entering. His initial probation was revoked in 2019, landing him behind bars for three months. Less than three months after his release, he was back in prison for nearly nine months on a post-release revocation.
Online court records show Meece has several pending traffic citations from 2023.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
