Police charged a 21-year-old man yesterday with the stabbing murder Aug. 10 of Deborah Brotherton Sykes, a copy editor for The Sentinel.
Darryl Eugene Hunt of 760 N. Patterson Ave., was charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond in the Forsyth County Jail. His first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.
Eight days before Mrs. Sykes was killed, Hunt was sentenced to six months in jail for trespassing and damaging person property. He had appealed the sentence, however, and was free on $300 bond.
Hunt had been in the Forsyth County Jail since Tuesday, awaiting trial on one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor. His bond had been set at $25,000.
The murder warrant accuses Hunt of killing Mrs. Sykes "with premeditation and deliberation and malice aforethought."
Mrs. Sykes, 25, was killed around dawn on Aug. 10, shortly after she had parked her car a block and a half from The Sentinel's offices.
Although some witnesses had told police that two men were involved in the crime, Hunt was the only suspect charged yesterday.
Maj. Joseph E. Masten, acting chief of the Winston-Salem Police Department, said, "So far we have evidence to charge just the one." He added that police are not excluding the possibility that another man was involved, "but thus far our investigation doesn't support that."
The investigation is continuing, Masten said.
Mrs. Sykes' body was found about 2 p.m. Aug. 10 on a grassy slope above the Buxton Street power station, across the street from Crystal Towers. She had been raped and stabbed numerous times in the upper body, police have said.
According to a search warrant, a witness saw a man "holding Mrs. Sykes around the head and neck in an assaultive manner" on West End Boulevard at 6:25 or 6:30 that morning. The witness, "a longtime member of the community with no criminal history," identified that man as Hunt from a photographic lineup this week, another court record states.
The witness spoke to police on the day of the murder but could provide only a description of the killer, not a name. The turning point in the case came last week, Masten said, but he declined to elaborate.
One key appears to be the arrest of Hunt and a female juvenile earlier this week on charges not related to the killing.
On Tuesday, Detective J.I. Daulton, who was working full time on the Sykes case, charged Hunt with taking indecent liberties with a girl younger than 16 years old on Aug. 10, the same day as the Sykes killing. The girl, meanwhile, was charged with a form of juvenile delinquency.
After these arrests, at least three times as many detectives were assigned to the Sykes case and the pace of the investigation accelerated feverishly. Detectives interviewed sources into the night Wednesday, and on Thursday they drew a warrant to take hair, blood and saliva samples from Hunt in jail.
According to the warrant, investigators found evidence of the same kind on Mrs. Sykes' body.
At 1:25 p.m. yesterday, police drew a search warrant for the apartment of Matte Mitchell at 760 N. Patterson Ave., which Mrs. Mitchell shared with Hunt and her son, Sammy Lee Mitchell. The warrant states that police were looking for a black T-shirt with a particular design on it, dark or black pants and a knife with a blade 5 inches long or shorter.
Witnesses told police that the men they saw with Mrs. Sykes were wearing dark clothing. The autopsy indicated that the stab wounds were inflicted by a knife with a short blade.
At the apartment, police seized a black T-shirt fitting the description on the warrant and a pocketknife with a broken tip, court records state. They also took three other knives, 10 pieces of clothing, three pairs of shoes and an envelope with the name Sammy Lee Mitchell on it, according to the records.
Daulton drew the murder warrant about 2:30 p.m. yesterday, and served it on Hunt, who had been brought handcuffed to the warrants office. Hunt's face betrayed no emotion as the charge was read to him.
Hunt is tall and thin, with his hair in short, tight braids. At the warrants office yesterday he wore a black wool hat, a light-colored vest over a patterned white T-shirt, jeans with the legs rolled up to the knees, white tennis shoes and athletic socks stretched over his calves.
Hunt has been charged with 11 crimes in Winston-Salem, according to court records.
The first time came one year ago, when he was charged with committing malicious injury to property on Sept. 9, 1983. Hunt received a suspended six-month jail sentence and was ordered to repay the victim, Johnny Reece Paige, $975 at a rate of $45 per month.
Hunt also was charged with assaulting Paige with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury on Nov. 3, and committing extortion against him Nov. 15. These charges were dropped when police were unable to find Paige to testify against Hunt, court records indicate.
When Hunt failed to make any of the court-ordered payments for two months, his probation was revoked and he was sent to the Forsyth County Jail. He served from Dec. 2 to June 5, a spokesman for the jail said.
On July 2, Hunt was charged with two counts of trespassing at Service Distributors on North Liberty Street. He also was charged with malicious injury to property; the warrant accused him of damaging six cans of drinks.
Hunt pleaded guilty to the charges in District Court on Aug. 2, and Judge Abner Alexander sentenced him to six months in jail. He appealed to Superior Court and was released on $300 bond.
On Sept. 8, Hunt was charged with disorderly conduct. In connection with the same incident, he was charged with resisting an officer and assault with a deadly weapon.
The assault warrant accuses Hunt of shooting Dennis Speaks in his side at Speaks' house at 1901 Dunleith Ave. This case is scheduled for trial Sept. 24, while the other two are scheduled for trial Sept. 28.
The indecent liberties charge is scheduled for trial Sept. 21 in Domestic Court.
Masten said there was no evidence to suggest that Mrs. Sykes had been stalked or that the killing had been plotting days in advance. "All of our evidence indicates it's just the converse of that," he said.
He noted that the crime was committed in an open area about dawn, within sight and sound of numerous potential witnesses.
"The timing was terrible. The location was about as bad," he said. "I don't recall a rape-murder ever occurring at that time of morning."
A reward of $12,000 had been offered by various groups for information in the Sykes case. Masten said there was a "real possibility" that a reward would be paid.
John Douglas Sykes of Mooresville, the victim's husband, said word of the arrest brought out conflicting emotions.
His voice quavering, Sykes said that the news upset him but that he felt it was "a big relief." He added, "We knew they had some suspects they were working on, (but) they didn't have anything real definite."