The days before the Fourth of July holiday are busy court days in Carthage. A number of hearings on cases that have captured wide public interest are on the docket this week in both Civil and Criminal Superior Courts.

In Superior Civil Court on Thursday, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge James M. Webb will hear a motion by Art Blue representing the estate of Abigail Baughn and her mother, Betty Alexander, for issuance of a preliminary injunction based upon Webb's June 4 temporary restraining order.

The estate seeks to block Randy Baughn from using any assets of his deceased wife's estate even to pay for his defense. The state has charged him with her murder. Attorneys William Van O'Linda and James R. Van Camp are representing him.

Webb granted Blue's request for an order temporarily without Baughn being represented or present, so a hearing at which his attorneys could respond had to be scheduled. The required hearing on that order was originally set for June 8. However, with all parties consenting, Judge William Z. Wood continued it to the July 2 administrative term of court.

Baughn's next scheduled criminal court date on the murder charge is on the July 13 appearance calendar. No trial date has been set.

Turner Case

Elton Turner is due back in court Monday morning for possible further proceedings in the state's two counts of second-degree rape and assault on a handicapped person, charges that he denies. Administrative hearings can range from hearing motions from prosecution or defense to plea deals or other pleas presented to the court.

Also on Monday, in the afternoon session, a hearing is scheduled for a Carthage teen charged with killing his infant son last summer. Jamie Marcus Bullard, 17 at the time, told detectives last August that he had been at his home on Sarges Drive playing with his son, 7-month-old Jacy Marcus Henderson-Bullard, when the baby hit his head, according to Sheriff Lane Carter.

Moore County sheriff's deputies said at the time that they were not sure how the child had suffered a fractured skull. The father told them he had called 911 and paramedics transported the infant to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst.

The hospital contacted the Moore County Department of Social Services, which, in turn, called the Sheriff's Office shortly after 4 p.m., reporting a possible assault on an infant. Carter said that there were some discrepancies in the father's story, and detectives were trying to discover exactly how the injury occurred.

Deputies later charged Bullard with murder and two counts of felony child abuse. The child's mother, Laurisa Danielle Henderson, 20, was at work when the injury occurred, Carter said. The baby was flown to Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital, where he was put on life support. The child was an organ donor, Carter said, and was kept alive so doctors could find recipients for some of his organs. The infant died Sunday, Aug. 24.

Haddock Murder

Two charged with murder in connection with the death of 12-year-old Emily Haddock are on the Superior criminal administrative court docket for Tuesday morning. She died from gunshots during an alleged home invasion at her Mount Pleasant residence while she was home sick from school Sept. 21, 2007.

Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, 19 at the time, and Van Roger Smith Jr., who was 16, are on the calendar for the morning session. The state indicted five teens in all on charges of murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and breaking and entering. In addition to Harrison and Smith, indictments were returned against Perry Ross Schiro, 19, and Michael Graham Currie, 18, and Ryan Jermar White, 18, of Sanford.

Two young men charged with murdering a Robbins teen in a street-side shooting will appear Wednesday morning. Bryant Andrew McKinney and Michael Lee Stidham Jr. are on the administrative docket for the July 1 morning session.

Tomas Pedro Pascual, 18, died March 31 after being shot with a rifle while standing with friends on the corner across from Tabernacle Methodist Church in Robbins. The grand jury indicted Stidham, 18, and McKinney, 16, on charges of murder. McKinney's brother, 17-year-old Trae Bradley McKinney and their mother and stepfather, Tara Lynette Reynolds, 34, and Benjamin Allen Reynolds, III, 35, were also indicted on charges of being accessories after the fact.

A previously scheduled Rule 24 hearing in which District Attorney Maureen Krueger would have informed the court as to whether the state intended to proceed against Stidham on a capital basis was continued to the July 1 session in order to give the state time to consider material just received in discovery.

That announcement could come this week.

Contact John Chappell at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.