WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – After two decades as New Hanover and Pender counties’ top attorney, District Attorney Ben David is leaving. Tuesday, Sept. 3, is his official last day as D.A.
“As I tell my three teenage kids now you don’t want to stay at the party too long,” David said.
Ben David says after 25 years in the district attorney’s office, 20 of which as the top attorney, it was just time. The last dance of his judicial jam.
“When you hit 25 years, that’s kind of the time when the state says you can continue to work but it’s on your time now rather than ours.”
The 54-year-old says he’s ready for a new challenge. He has one. He’s the first CEO of the new Community Justice Center created by the New Hanover Community Endowment.
“You know you kind of hit your stride when you’re my age,” he said. “I’ve tried to do a good job in the time I’ve been here. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and one thing that I’m passionate about is not just responding to crime but trying to go out and prevent it.”
“Today’s victim is tomorrow’s defendant”
David recalls what he considers his Mount Rushmore of cases. Cases like a two-day shooting spree with a deadly ending.
It’s a case David says he’ll never forget. William Gilmore started his crime spree by shooting at Shelly Lancaster six times while she was out walking her dog near Roland Grise Middle School. She was lucky she survived. Gilmore’s crime spree moved to Wrightsville Beach the next day then ended in a shootout on Market Street. Law enforcement had no choice but to kill him.
David says Gilmore had a troubled childhood. He believes that childhood, like so many, lead to his demise and hopes the new Community Justice Center will play a role in reaching children before they grow up to become criminals.
“Today’s victim is tomorrow’s defendant,” David said. “And what I mean by that is people who are traumatized frequently end up traumatizing other people.”
Melissa Mooney’s murder
“An FBI secretary was killed in her own home – strangled in a model home right there in the Apple Valley subdivision.”
Melissa Mooney was found brutally murdered inside her home. For ten years the case went unsolved. David, who for years had taken pride in finding justice for the dead was tormented. Then investigators got a break in the case. Mooney’s next door neighbor, Tyrone Delgado, was convicted in her brutal murder. That’s one case the top prosecutor says will forever be one of his most memorable.
“To win the directors award for the top prosecution in the country that year, this was back in 2009, and to be able to bring justice to Melissa and her family and to take one of the most violent people I’ve ever met off the street – that one is up there.”
Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk’s murder
This was a murder case that took an unexpected turn. In 2014 when Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk didn’t show up for her own birthday party, her family filed a missing person’s report. She was last seen at a bar in downtown Wilmington. A co-worker at a local landscaping company was also seen at the same spot the night she vanished.
That co-worker was James Bradley.
“James Bradley is a serial killer. He’ someone who methodically hunts people and kills them in ritualistic and serial way,” David said during an interview with WECT in 2014.
Several weeks after her disappearance, a decomposed body was found, and investigators just knew it was Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk. Then Ben David got a call.
“I get a call from Chief Ralph Evangelous with the Wilmington Police Department. ‘Ben, are you sitting down? My lead detective is at the autopsy right now. It’s not her.’”
The woman in the shallow grave turned out to be Alisha Tucker. She disappeared seven months earlier after having a sexual relationship with Bradley. He was convicted of her murder. And while Bradley was convicted of Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk’s murder, her body has never been found.
“To try a case where we never had a confession or a witness or a crime scene or a murder weapon or even a body and still be able to convict him- that was from a legal standpoint probably the most challenging case I’ve ever tried,” David recalled.
Peyton Strickland shooting
“No one is above the law and no one is beneath its protection.”
That’s what Ben David said in an interview in 2006 after Peyton Strickland, a Cape Fear Community College student, was shot and killed by a New Hanover County sheriff’s deputy. A team of deputies raided his home in search of two stolen PlayStation 3 video game consoles. Cpl. Christopher Long told investigators he mistook the sound of a battering ram officers used to break open the front door to the house for gunfire. He was fired by the sheriff’s department a week after the shooting.
“You know the hardest cases to handle are police involved cases involving use of force, usually shootings,” David said.
That particular case got messy. Long was indicted for second-degree murder but the case took an unexpected turn a day after the indictment..
“Twenty-four hours later the grand jury foreman came back in and said ‘We checked the wrong box.’”
There were no other charges for Long. The former corporal never faced any charges. David says he took some heat over the indictment debacle, a matter that was out of his control.
“There was so much public confusion behind that case because people watch TV and think the prosecutors are in the room. They think we know what happened in a grand jury room. We only send in indictments and they either stamp them as true bills or not.”
David says the protocol has changed since that case. Now there are several boxes to check before a grand jury signs off on an indictment. New Hanover County ended up paying close to $3 million dollars to Peyton Strickland’s family.
Overall, David is extraordinarily proud of what he accomplished in the district attorney’s office, especially as a strong advocate for victims. David says he’s most proud that his office never had a wrongful conviction in his 20 years at the helm.
Wilmington is home forever
The Florida native moved to Wilmington in 1999 after graduating from Wake Forest University School of Law to take a job as an ADA. John Carriker was the district attorney at the time. After Carriker retired, David would run for the office and win in 2004.
David knew he and his wife would likely live in Wilmington for a few years but when his twin brother, Jon, moved to the Port City in 2001, it sealed the deal. Jon is the district attorney for Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus counties. Jon has no plans to retire. Ben says he has no plans to ever leave Wilmington.
“Wilmington is home now. I hope to die here,” he said.
David will leave the office with some unfinished business: cases that were continued past his retirement date. For one, the trials for the men accused of killing two people inside the home of the former COO of TRU Colors in 2021. In April, a judge further delayed the trials. No date has been set.
David says his focus now is the new Community Justice Center he hopes will still be around 100 years from now.
When asked if he would ever go into private practice, he responded “absolutely.” It is definitely part of the long-range plan for the now former district attorney.
It’s been an emotional departure. Last Friday, hundreds gathered at Thalian Hall for a special retirement celebration. David said he’s just so grateful the community gave him the opportunity.
“How can I be anything other than grateful today. I mean I’ve done a job I love with the people I love in a community I love. I can’t believe the opportunity I’ve had to raise three incredible kids here with my wife Steffi. I just want to thank people for giving me the chance to be their D.A. People ask do I have another chapter?”
With a smile, he replies, “I have whole book in me.”
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