A 32-year-old man was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for shooting a woman he kidnapped and a responding deputy, the Banks County Sheriff’s Office says.
A jury convicted Robert Brodie of Henderson, North Carolina, on all counts of the charges filed against him including kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated battery, aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and theft by receiving stolen property.
Around 2 a.m. on February 8, 2022, deputies were on patrol when they noticed a suspicious car in the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel at Banks Crossing. A man and a woman were asleep in the backseat of the car. After checking the license plate, deputies discovered that the car’s owner, Brodie, was wanted for kidnapping in North Carolina.
The deputies attempted to wake the people in the car and that’s when investigators say Brodie pulled out a gun and shot the woman, identified by North Carolina authorities as Mary Ann Joyner. Brodie and the deputies exchanged gunfire. Brodie was shot several times and Deputy Dillon Crump was shot in the hand.
Crump was treated and released from the hospital. At the State Capitol weeks later, state lawmakers recognized Crump and two other deputies, Cale Mathis and Sgt. Jeffery Ledford, for their courage and valor.
The February incident was not the first time Brodie was accused of kidnapping Joyner, with whom he had a previous romantic relationship, according to WRAL-TV. At the time of the Banks County shooting, WRAL reports Brodie was out of jail on bond for allegedly kidnapping Joyner in Franklin County, North Carolina, and taking her across state lines.
