Bio

Gregory Gibson was born in 1978 in Durham, North Carolina. At age 13, in 1992, he broke into the home of 90-year-old Mary Haddon intending to steal her car keys and beat her to death with a hammer and a garden tool. Because of his age, his identity was protected under North Carolina law at the time, and he was tried and convicted in juvenile court, becoming, by local reporting, the youngest person ever charged with murder in Durham. He was committed to a state training school and released on his 18th birthday in 1996, at which point his juvenile record was legally cleared.

In the two years following his release, Gibson was charged with a series of lesser offenses, including trespassing, assault, attempting to steal a car, and, most recently before his final arrest, possession of stolen goods — the last of these alongside a female accomplice. Neighbors of his original victim expressed concern about his continued brushes with the law.

Murder Story

On June 10, 1992, 13-year-old Gregory Devon Gibson entered the Durham home of 90-year-old Mary Haddon intending to steal the keys to her Oldsmobile. Gibson knew Haddon because she had previously hired him to do yard work. When she confronted him, he attacked her with a hammer and a garden tool, striking her at least 40 times. He then took her car and drove it with friends. Haddon’s body was discovered on June 13, and Gibson was arrested three days later.

Because Gibson was below North Carolina’s minimum age for transfer to adult court, he was handled as a juvenile. On September 16, 1992, he was adjudicated delinquent for Haddon’s murder and committed to C.A. Dillon Training School. He remained there until his eighteenth birthday and was released in July 1996.

On August 25, 1998, convenience-store clerk Sylvester Thompson Jr. was shot twice during a robbery at a BP store in Durham. Surveillance footage reportedly showed Thompson following the robber’s instructions and surrendering the cash drawer before he was shot. Police identified Gibson as the suspected gunman and arrested him on August 29.

Gibson was held at the Durham County Jail while awaiting trial for Thompson’s murder. During the early hours of November 13, 1998, officers found him hanging from a cell-window bar with a bedsheet around his neck. He was pronounced dead after efforts to revive him failed.

Gibson’s death ended the second murder prosecution before a trial could take place. His legal record therefore included one juvenile homicide adjudication for Mary Haddon’s murder and an unresolved adult murder charge involving Sylvester Thompson Jr.