By Jessica Rocha
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
Copyright 2006 The News and Observer
For some who watched the retired Carrboro fire chief’s life publically unravel as he continually — and criminally — contacted a former girlfriend, a tragic end seemed inevitable.
That end came June 24, when, hours after violating the terms of his probation one last time by calling his ex at work, Rodney Wallace Murray, 58, was found dead in a hotel room, according to police.
A recently released autopsy report says Murray killed himself by overdosing on sleeping pills and alcohol. Two bottles and a package of sleep aid medication were identified “with a significant number of pills unaccounted for,” according to the report.
A “markedly elevated” level of diphenhydramine, an over-the-counter drug commonly found in Benadryl and other allergy and sleep aids, was found in Murray’s blood and liver, the report says.
For some, Murray’s suicide reflects the legal system’s failure to keep a man with apparent psychological problems safe.
“The criminal justice system would put him in jail, and the medical professionals refused to keep him [hospitalized] somewhere,” said Harold Horne, who was a pallbearer in Murray’s funeral and considered him a close friend. The two worked together in the 1970s and 1980s.
Horne said in an interview in June that he didn’t understand why Murray couldn’t get the help he needed to prevent his suicide.
Arrests, probation
Murray was arrested Christmas Eve on charges of driving while impaired and making harassing phone calls, after he wrecked his car near Gina Ambrosecchia’s Durham home. Cell phone records show that he called Ambrosecchia eight times Dec. 23 and 24. He also drove by her house and rang her doorbell, according to police.
Over the next few months, Murray was charged with misdemeanor stalking and repeatedly charged with violating a domestic violence protective order for trying to call Ambrosecchia. He pleaded guilty in January to violating the protective order and was released on probation, but he was re-arrested for violating the terms of his release in March.
After two months in the Durham County jail, where he had been held in lieu of $1.5 million bail after the March arrest, Murray pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stalking and other related charges. He was released from jail in May but sentenced to five years probation.
Within 30 days of his release, Murray was ordered to have a mental health evaluation and to heed any recommended treatment, Durham Assistant District Attorney Kendra Montgomery-Blinn said in June. He was also required to follow up on his treatment for alcoholism.
“That was put in place to protect him as well as the victim,” Montgomery-Blinn said at the time.
Probation officers for domestic violence offenders usually have special training and a reduced case load because such offenders are considered at high risk of reoffending, said Robert Lee Guy, director of the state’s Division of Community Corrections.
Within one month of release or sentencing, an offender is supposed to go through a lethality assessment to predict the likelihood of reoffending or hurting someone, said Tony Taylor, assistant judicial manager for community corrections in Wake County. The offender also is supposed to start treatment within that time.
Probation officers must make a home contact and also contact victims, family and others involved in the offender’s lives.
But because 30 days hadn’t yet passed from his release, it is not clear whether Murray had undergone his lethality assessment or begun treatment.
“Probation is not prison or jail,” Guy said. “We can still do an outstanding job, and they can still slip through the cracks.”