Asheville, NC

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photo: Special to the Citizen-Times Deidre Waters was 20 years old at the time of her murder. Related Links PDF: Court documents PDF: Court documents Interact Get breaking news & headlines by e-mail Participate in our community forums Newsroom • E-mail John Boyle and Leslie Boyd • Submit a News Tip • Ethics Policy • Write a Letter to the Editor

ASHEVILLE - To the family of Deidre Waters, the legal maneuverings seem never-ending.

This week they learned that the man twice sentenced to death for killing their loved one 19 years ago could be removed from Death Row. The news hit the family hard.

"Emotionally, right now I'm stressed, I'm mad, I'm angry," said Veronica Waters Jackson, Deidre's sister. "It feels like she's not buried, she's not dead, she's not resting in peace. I don't think she's going to rest in peace until this is settled."

Deidre's father, Clyde Waters, has waited for justice since March 1985, when Michael Lee Fullwood stabbed Waters' daughter 24 times in the Kenilworth house where she ran a child-care center. Two young children were in the house at the time of the attack.

Clyde Waters has no doubt that Fullwood deserves execution.

"If you would see some of the pictures of my daughter, you would say he needs to be on Death Row," Waters said of the crime scene photos. "It looks like something in a horror picture."

Fullwood was found on top of Deidre's body at the scene, bleeding from the arms, neck and abdomen.

Last week a federal judge released Fullwood, 48, from a death sentence imposed for the slaying. Fullwood was sentenced to death in 1985, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that sentence, along with dozens of others, because of constitutional issues in the state's death penalty law.

In 1994, another jury sentenced Fullwood to death. Last week, the judge found that a juror in Fullwood's second sentencing hearing knew of the previous death sentence and told other jurors about it, prejudicing the jury.

Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore said Tuesday he's evaluating his options in the case. He said he has two choices: appeal the decision in federal court or pursue a new sentencing hearing at the state level within 180 days of the judge's Aug. 16 decision.

"Two different juries in this county have given him a death sentence, and I believe a jury should once again have the chance to sentence him," Moore said.

Because he was sentenced before structured sentencing laws went into effect in 1994, Fullwood could be eligible for parole if the federal court rejects an appeal or the state does not pursue another sentencing trial, Moore said.

"He was charged in (1985), and at that time there was a 20- year parole on a life sentence, so he would be eligible for parole," Moore said.

Moore said he'll work to keep Fullwood from getting out.

Keith Acree, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Correction in Raleigh, said the DOC has not received official word about last week's ruling. He did say Fullwood's sentence would now revert to life in prison.

"The question is if it's life with parole or life without parole," Acree said. "If the crime was committed before Oct. 1, 1994, there would be a possibility of parole."

The crime occurred March 29, 1985. Fullwood and Deidre Waters had a relationship but had broken up at the time of the slaying.

Fullwood's mother, Margaret Fullwood of Asheville, was happy Wednesday about the news that her youngest child would leave Death Row. But her joy was tempered with caution because of the uncertainty regarding her son's resentencing. She said she also knew the news about her son was causing pain to others.

"I just thank God he's off Death Row, and I pray every day for healing for everyone involved," she said.

Fullwood knows "both sides of the fence," she said. Her oldest child and only other son, Daniel Jr., was murdered six months before Michael Fullwood stabbed Waters. When Daniel Jr. was shot in the back and killed in New York on Sept. 16, 1984, she opposed the death penalty for his killer.

In 2000, she told the Citizen-Times: "I feel like this: that son has a mother, too, and for him to have been executed would not have brought my son back."

When Fullwood was sentenced on Dec. 12, 1985, he became the first person from Buncombe County to be sent to Death Row since the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1974. North Carolina reinstated the death penalty in 1977. He was the 53rd person in the state to be sentenced to death following the reinstatement.

One of Fullwood's lawyers, Stephen Lindsay, said his client has been a model prisoner, which is backed up by DOC records.

"He did something that was incredibly awful, incredibly regretful and something he is incredibly remorseful for," Lindsay said. "You can't change history, but I think you can't judge him on what he did ... years ago, but what he has done since."

In prison, Fullwood has become an artist and has sold his art through a foundation established by his wife, Chapel Hill family law attorney Betsy Wolfenden, to raise money for his daughter, Michelle. Wolfenden met Fullwood in her first year of law school, through a program sponsored by People of Faith Against the Death Penalty.

"He had developed a deep, deep faith since the crime and that's what drew me to him," she said.

They were married Jan. 15, 1999, at Central Prison. Wolfenden knows it's unlikely her husband will ever be released from prison.

"It's never been like I've been waiting for him to come home so our marriage can begin," she said. "We have a wonderful relationship, a wonderful marriage."

Waters' family doesn't believe that Fullwood has turned his life around.

"He hasn't apologized; he hasn't said nothing to the family," Clyde Waters said. "I don't know how good a prisoner he was, but he sure hasn't shown any remorse."

Waters said his daughter, just 20 at the time of her death, had finished school at Blue Ridge Community College and wanted to continue her studies at Mars Hill College.

Deidre Waters and Fullwood had a daughter together. She now lives in Washington, D.C., and family members say she has no contact with Fullwood.

After Fullwood received his second death sentence in 1994, Waters' mother, Elaine Mills, said she was relieved to have the death sentence reinstated.

"Now I feel we can go on with our lives," she said after the sentencing. "It's over now, and we won't have to go through this again."

But they do.

"This has got to stop, a closure has to come to this," said Veronica Waters Jackson.

Contact Boyle at 232-5847 or JBoyle@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.

Contact Boyd at 232-2922 or LBoyd@CITIZEN-TIMES.com.

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