Full Notification

Capt. Shanon Smith of the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office charged Jerry Ryan Echols, 31, of Wheeler Drive in Marion, on Friday with murder in connection with the June 17 shooting death of Christopher Wayne English.
Smith also charged Joshua Mason Ledbetter, 22, of Dysartsville Road in Nebo, on Friday with accessory after the fact of murder.
Around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17, McDowell County sheriff’s deputies were en route to a welfare check in Deer Park Gardens in Nebo, when they came upon a man lying partially in the roadway at the intersection of Pinnacle Church Road and Pinnacle Heights Drive.
The man, identified as English, 39, of Pinnacle Heights Drive, had been shot and died at the scene.
Since that time, the entire Criminal Investigations Branch, along with deputies, Sheriff’s Office administrators and agents with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, have spent countless hours examining the situation, working leads and conducting dozens of interviews, all of which began to implicate Echols’ possible involvement.
Echols has been incarcerated in the McDowell County jail since Friday, June 19. He was wanted on misdemeanor charges for failing to appear. Detective Paul Alkire of the Sheriff’s Office and Special Agent Van Williams of the SBI spotted Echols’ vehicle on Pinnacle Church Road on the evening of Friday, June 19. When they attempted to stop the black SUV, Echols sped up and led them on a chase to Trinity Church Loop and then to Dysartsville Road, where the suspect stopped the automobile in the middle of the road and was taken into custody.
During a search of the vehicle, authorities found a handgun that was sent to the State Crime Lab for analysis in relation to this homicide.
On June 19, Alkire charged Echols with fleeing to elude arrest, driving while license revoked and possession of a firearm by a felon. He has been in jail under a $76,000 bond since that time.
Further investigation led detectives to Ledbetter, who they say assisted Echols after the shooting by helping him clean the alleged murder weapon, providing him with ammunition for the firearm and withholding information from law enforcement.
Smith said it appears that Echols and English got into an argument on Pinnacle Church Road on the morning of Wednesday, March 17, and Echols shot English multiple times.