ROCKINGHAM — Investigators have charged a man with attempted murder in connection to a mid-September shooting.
John Kelsey Watkins, 46, is accused of shooting another man on Brandon Road, off of Battley Dairy Road south of Hamlet on Sept. 16.
According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at the time, the unnamed victim had been taken to the emergency room of FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Richmond with a gunshot wound and was subsequently flown to an undisclosed trauma center for treatment.
Investigators say the victim has since recovered.
Watkins was arrested and booked into the Richmond County Jail at 8:07 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 7. He is charged with one count each of attempted first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon, and is being held on a $1 million secured bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on both charges Dec. 21.
Online court records show Watkins has the following pending charges from 2021: two counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance; possession of drug paraphernalia. His next court date for those charges is Dec. 14.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Watkins has a history with violence and drugs.
Watkins was first convicted in 1994 on two misdemeanor counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and damage to property, as well as a single count of willful or wanton injury to real property.
He was given probation, however that was revoked on one of the damage to property charges and (although it shows as a revocation) he was convicted of damage to hired property. For that, he spent just a few days shy of a year behind bars.
Less than a year after being released, Watkins was convicted of possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance. His probation was revoked, resulting in a four-and-a-half-month prison stay.
In 1999, Watkins was convicted in Guilford County of assault inflicting serious injury. Again, he was given probation and again it was revoked in 2021 and he served 17 months in prison.
Records show Watkins was again convicted in Guilford County in 2004 on two counts of assault by pointing a gun and one count of assault on a female, both misdemeanors. He served less than five months for both convictions combined.
While serving that sentence, Watkins was convicted in Richmond County on a felony charge of possessing stolen goods and given probation.
His most recent conviction was in 2012 on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and a single count of possession of a firearm by a felon. Watkins’ sentence began on Aug. 20, 2012 and he was released Dec. 12, 2019, records show. His parole ended Sept. 7, 2020.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
