What Susan Golcher would give for another day to spend with the daughter she loved with all of a mother’s heart.
To see a daughter’s twinkling blue eyes again. To hear a daughter’s infectious laughter again or just to kiss one more time a daughter’s rosy cheek.
For Susan Golcher, life since the early morning of July 17, 2023, has been a living nightmare.
“They got off so easy,” Susan Golcher, 59, says about Devon and Darius Bell. Both men were sentenced on February 19 by Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Robby Hicks in plea deals for the early morning fatal shooting of 19-year-old Danielle Claire Golcher at a Bragg Boulevard gas station and convenience store. “They are going to have a second chance at life when they are released. Danielle doesn’t get that chance,” Golcher said.
Devon Laron Bell, according to the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, received a sentence of 15 years to 19 years for second degree murder; assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury; discharging a weapon into occupied property inflicting serious bodily injury; and a July 15, 2023, robbery with a dangerous weapon. He will receive credit of 779 days or 2.1 years for incarceration prior to the sentencing.
Darius Bell received a sentence of 10 years to 13.5 years for second degree murder (reckless), discharging a weapon into occupied property inflicting serious bodily injury, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He, too, will receive credit of 2.1 years for incarceration before sentencing.
Investigators, Susan Golcher says, couldn’t determine which brother was the shooter.
“They assumed it was Darius,” she said, “but I don’t think they could say for sure.”
But one brother fired the bullet, prosecutors believe, which took Danielle Golcher’s life.
“We sought the measure of justice we were able to get,” Rob Thompson, assistant district attorney, said this week.
Still, Thompson will tell you, there never is closure for a parent who has lost a child to violence.
‘No! No! No!’
A registered nurse, Susan Golcher still recalls the 4 a.m. phone call from a Fayetteville police detective informing the mother that her daughter had been involved in a shooting.
“I said, ‘Is she OK?’” Golcher wanted to know. “Then I yelled, ‘Is she OK?’”
Then came a detective’s chilling words.
“No ma’am,” the detective said, “she is deceased.”
A mother’s nightmare was a reality.
“No! No! No!” Susan Golcher screamed.
Danielle Claire Golcher was the victim of an attempted robbery gone wrong, and while sitting in her automobile waiting for her friends, she died from a bullet wound, according to her mother. The automobile was riddled with five bullets, she said, and one which entered her daughter’s “right arm to the lung, through her heart and exited the other side of her body.”
A memorial service was held July 28, 2023, at Crystal Springs Chapel, where the young woman with the vivacious personality was remembered by family and friends for her a cappella singing voice, her compassion for animals, and her softball skills at South View High School and youth travel teams.
“I never thought I would be standing here,” Keith Fields, her travel coach, said, “doing a memorial for one of my girls.”
In February, Susan Golcher looked into the faces of the brothers who took her daughter’s life.
“Daniel was more than a victim,” she told the court. “She was my daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, an aunt and a friend. Darius may be 26 and the other about 32 when released. Maybe they won’t end up back on the streets. That in no way means I forgive them but if (prison rehabilitation programs) gives them something to fall back on, it could potentially save another mom from this nightmare that I’m going through.”
Epilogue
Susan Golcher has known sleepless nights in these past 2½ years. She knows the empty chair at a Thanksgiving dining table. She sees the softball awards and plaques of the daughter known as the “Blonde Bomber” because of her athletic prowess and who could send a softball out of sight over the outfield fence of Eddie Dees Field in Hope Mills. She misses shopping with her daughter at Kohl’s. She misses the gift for a daughter underneath the Christmas tree.
Today, Devon Laron Bell, 19, is incarcerated at Central Prison in Raleigh. Darius Bell, 18, is incarcerated at the Granville Correctional Center in Butner. The brothers will see their tomorrows. There will be no tomorrows for Danielle Claire Golcher.
“I would tell Danielle it wasn’t the outcome we expected and hoped for, and I would tell Danielle that I love you and miss you forever,” Susan Golcher said. “I’m sorry they hurt you. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. No amount of time they serve will ever be enough or make this right, because at the end of the day, Danielle is still not here. And for right now” Devon Laron Bell and Darius Bell “are right where they should be.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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