ROCKINGHAM — Deputies have charged a twice-convicted murderer with attempted murder after an alleged assault sent a woman to a hospital with “life-threatening injuries.”
According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, deputies on Wednesday responded to a call on Middle Street in East Rockingham where they found a woman bleeding from her neck.
The press release, posted to the RCSO’s Facebook page, does not mention how the wound occurred and the warrant was not available online as of 8 p.m.
Deputies reportedly controlled the victim’s bleeding while waiting for an ambulance. The victim was taken to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital-Richmond for emergency surgery.
At the time the post was made, the victim was still in surgery and her name was not being released until family could be notified.
The suspect was identified as 66-year-old Jerry Lee Hamilton, who lives on Middle Street. Deputies reportedly “saturated” East Rockingham and found Hamilton around 2:30 p.m.
He was arrested and booked into the Richmond County Jail where he is being held without bond on a charge of attempted first-degree murder. Hamilton is scheduled to appear in court April 10.
“I am incredibly proud of our deputies at the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, the Richmond County Emergency Center Telecommunicators, FirstHealth EMS, Rockingham Rescue, and the staff at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital's Richmond Campus," Sheriff Mark Gulledge said in a statement about the incident.
Court records show Hamilton was issued a citation in November of 2024 for driving while license revoked. That case is still pending.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Hamilton was convicted of second-degree murder in 1974. He was subsequently convicted of attempting to escape prison in Burke County (1975) and escaping prison in Anson County (1983). Despite the attempt and escape, he was released in 1984.
In 1986, Hamilton was convicted on two counts each of assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon. His probation on three of those counts was revoked the following year and he was sent to prison — and again was convicted of escape.
Records show Hamilton was released in March of 1988, but charged later that year with second-degree rape and convicted in 1989.
Four months after his release in 1994, Hamilton was charged with murder and convicted in 1997 and given the death sentence, records show. However, that sentence was vacated and he was granted a new trial and convicted of second-degree murder in 2005 and remained behind bars until 2013.
Hamilton was convicted again in 2015 of: assault by strangulation; assault on a female; being a habitual felon; felony breaking and entering; and damage to property.
He was released from that conviction in 2021, but was back in prison in 2023 when he was convicted of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance. Hamilton was released from prison in June 2024 and his parole ended March 3.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
