Scottie Winstead

Scottie Winstead, a 48-year-old Black man from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was a friend remembered fondly by those who knew him. His life was cut short in an act of violence in the fall of 2022.

On the afternoon of October 11, 2022, police responded to reports of shots fired in the 600 block of Cascade Avenue. The call was updated to a shooting with an injury while officers were on their way around 2:30 p.m. At the scene, they discovered Scottie Winstead unresponsive in the driver's seat of his Mazda pickup truck, which was parked in a driveway at 608 Cascade Avenue. He had been shot multiple times. Nash County EMS personnel arrived and pronounced him deceased. An autopsy later revealed that the cause of death was two gunshot wounds to the head and six to the torso. The driver's side window of the truck was shattered, and investigators recovered 9mm casings and projectiles from the scene.

The investigation began immediately. Just a few feet from the rear of the truck, officers took a man into custody who matched a description provided by a 911 caller. The caller had reported seeing a man with a gun in the backyard of a nearby home. Police later identified the man they detained as Nevin Brown, then 35 years old. During a search of the area, a firearm was discovered near a shed and a doghouse.

Brown was taken to the police department for an interview but refused to speak with detectives. An investigator noted what appeared to be blood on Brown’s hands. Security videos from the area showed Brown walking through the backyards of neighboring properties. Four days later, on October 15, the owners of a home on Cascade Avenue called police to report finding a cell phone in their yard while mowing the grass. The phone was later identified as belonging to Nevin Brown.

Nevin Brown was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for the death of Scottie Winstead. He was initially held without bond in the Nash County Detention Center. Following a trial, Brown was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.