Son jailed on charge of rape
Murphy – A woman who threatened to kill a witness in a case against her son pleaded guilty last week, while her heir remains locked up on a statutory rape charge.
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Carol Lynn Bruce, 63, pled guilty to intimidating a witness on May 3, and a judge sentenced her to a minimum of 14 months in prison with the possibility of serving 26 months in confinement. The sentence, however, is suspended, meaning Bruce won’t serve prison time unless she violates conditions of the plea agreement.
Bruce, who has a prior felony conviction for family violence battery out of Georgia, has been placed on supervised probation for 24 months and must serve 24 hours of community service within the next 180 days. Meanwhile, her son is being held on a $1 million secured bond and will likely remain in jail until his case is adjudicated.
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Bruce’s son, 30-year-old Charles Anthony Payne, was arrested in September after allegedly picking up a 13-year-old girl who didn’t return home for more than 24 hours. Law enforcement officials say the juvenile willingly left her Hanging Dog home as a passenger in Payne’s vehicle. However, since the teenager was not old enough to provide consent without parental permission, Payne was charged with felonious restraint.
Court documents say Bruce threatened to kill a man who was being used as a witness in the case against her son, which has evolved into something more serious than officials initially thought. A Cherokee County grand jury indicted Payne in March, charging him with statutory rape of a child and statutory sex offense with a child.
Court records allege that Payne engaged in sexual intercourse with the teenager during the time when her parents could not find her. Payne initially told police he picked up the girl a little after midnight Sept. 7 and returned to her residence around 5:30 a.m.
After the teen’s parents reported her missing that evening, several agencies throughout North Carolina and Tennessee set out to
find the girl, who emerged from the woods a few hours after the search began on Sept. 8.
The felonious restraint charge against Payne was dismissed after the grand jury indicted him on the rape and sex offense charges. Meanwhile, a woman identified as Patricia Ann Waldroup – who was allegedly in the car with Payne when he drove the teen back home – still faces a felonious restraint charge.