A pickup truck driver who was convicted of first-degree murder for killing a motorcyclist in January 2022 during a road rage incident in Fayetteville had a fair trial, the North Carolina Court of Appeals said in a ruling issued Wednesday.
With this ruling, Roger Dale Nobles, 54, of Cumberland County will remain in prison for the rest of his life for shooting to death Steven “Trey” Perry Addison of Fayetteville. He is serving a sentence of life with no possibility of parole. His trial was in August 2023.
A witness in a nearby car recorded a video of the shooting in 2022, and this video was widely shared on social media.
Nobles’ appellate lawyer, John E. Ryan III, argued that Nobles’ conviction should be overturned and he should get a new trial. Ryan said Superior Court Judge Gale M. Adams made a mistake when she dismissed a juror and one of the alternative jurors from the case after hearing evidence that the two had engaged in an inappropriate discussion about the trial outside of jury deliberations. Jurors are not allowed to discuss evidence outside of deliberations in the jury room.
Three judges of the Court of Appeals unanimously ruled there was nothing wrong with Adams’ decision.
Argument led to murder
Addison, who was 32, was an Army veteran. He was married and was a father. He was riding his motorcycle on Skibo Road when he triggered Nobles’ ire by lane-splitting, a legal brief from the North Carolina Attorney General Office says. Addison had driven his motorcycle in between the cars in the travel lanes to move to the front of traffic stopped at a traffic light, and that upset Nobles.
“Mr. Nobles and his son [who was in the passenger seat] exchanged insults with the motorcyclist, Mr. Steven Addison,” Nobles’ legal brief says. “After leaving the intersection, Mr. Nobles and Mr. Addison continued to drive along Skibo Road; the back-and-forth between Mr. Addison and Nobles’s son continued until they arrived at the intersection of Skibo Road and Cliffdale Road.”
At the red light at Cliffdale Road, Nobles’ son Roger Nobles Jr. got out of the passenger side of the pickup truck and confronted Addison. “A brief altercation ensued, with Addison pushing Junior away,” the attorney general’s brief says.
Meanwhile, Roger Nobles Sr., sitting in the driver seat, raised a pistol. Noble’s legal brief says he was “in a state of fear” and he “grabbed his gun and pointed it out the open door of his truck to stop the altercation between his son and Mr. Addison.”
“He pointed the weapon at Addison and fired a single shot, striking him in the chest, killing him,” the attorney general’s brief says. “Addison collapsed and died at the scene. Nobles and his son waited for the light to turn green and fled.”
Nobles was arrested at his home shortly after.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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