Christopher Shields appeared in Macon County Superior Court Monday in waist chains and under a heavy police presence. He left the same way, but with the knowledge that he now could face the death penalty for the 2022 murder of Tina Walkingstick Frizsell.
Macon County, North Carolina, Superior Court Judge William Coward granted District Attorney Ashley Welch’s request to transfer Shield’s felony murder charge to a capital murder charge. That move will allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty when the case goes to trial.
Judge Coward also denied Shields bond. His attorney had been pushing for a reduction in the $1.2 million bond set last summer following his arrest for Frizsell’s murder.
Prosecutors allege Shields shot Frizsell to death in a shed on his property in Otto, North Carolina, in May of 2022. Investigators say the Mountain City, Georgia, woman’s body was then moved to another location and burned.
Frizsell, a mother of two, was killed the day before her 43rd birthday. Her family was in the courtroom for Monday’s hearing.
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Flight risk
Defense attorney Tony Dalton argued the state is treating Shields prejudiciously by holding him at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, four and a half hours away.
He explained to the judge that his client moved back to Macon County several years ago to help take care of his grandparents. His grandmother passed away last week, and his grandfather is currently in hospice care.
Dalton said since his arrest, Shields has been housed in several detention centers in western North Carolina, making it difficult to represent him.
He told the judge he looked at his client’s criminal history and had not seen at any time where Shields failed to appear in court. Dalton said Shields has family and his children in the area and would not be a flight risk.
District Attorney Ashley Welch countered that argument, telling the judge that Shields has connections in Colorado and Texas and is a flight risk because of the severity of the charges against him. She also said Shields is an escape risk. He picked the locks on his cells in various detention centers where he’s been housed since last May.
DA claims Shields has ‘hit list’
Welch also argued that Shields made a “hit list” and allegedly threatened the lives of witnesses and potential witnesses. She said he has called upon his “larger family” to assist in those threats based on information coming from inmates and potential witnesses in the community.
According to Welch, Angela Ledford was one such witness. Investigators found the 22-year-old Clayton woman’s decapitated body last month in the Chattahoochee National Forest.
Welch said she is currently working with Georgia authorities since Ledford was a witness in the Frizsell shooting.
She explained to the judge that not only is Shields a flight risk but also a risk to the community.
‘Egregious’ acts
Monday’s proceeding was a continuation of an administrative hearing held on September 11, during which defense attorney Tony Dalton asked for a bond reduction. That was also when Macon County Assistant District Attorney Jim Moore introduced the Rule 24 transfer, seeking to make the case eligible for the death penalty.
Dalton argued the district attorney’s office did not properly inform him of the Rule 24 transfer. At Monday’s hearing, Dalton admitted that his paralegal had received the notice on August 18, but he had not received it himself.
Moore detailed for the judge the nature of the case and the “egregious actions” that took place in Frizsell’s murder. As he shared details of the shooting, Frizsell’s mother began to sob and quickly left the courtroom.
Judge Coward issued his ruling after the attorneys presented their arguments.
Since it is now a capital murder case, Shields most likely will not go to trial until 2025, giving prosecutors time to collect potential evidence from Ledford’s Georgia murder case.
