Gwynne MacDonald Furches, 24, of Greensboro, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on December 2, 2020, for the death of Elijah Edward Coppedge, 72, also of Greensboro, on May 30, 2019.
That night, Coppedge was walking home along East Gate City Boulevard when he was hit and killed by a car driven by 22-year-old Furches. According to the report of the accident, Furches didn’t stop after hitting Coppedge. Instead, he tried to get back on the road by swerving. Instead, she hit a light pole and broke through a wooden privacy fence at 14 Aggie Ct.
Furches’s guilty plea to Second Degree Murder led to her being found guilty and sent to prison as a Class B Felon. N.C. Gen. Stat. 14-17 says that “a person who commits Second Degree Murder shall be punished as a Class B2 felon” if the “malice necessary to prove second degree murder is based on an inherently dangerous act or omission, done in such a reckless and wanton manner as to show a mind completely without regard for human life and social duty.”
In other words, “malice” is needed to prove second-degree murder, but the legal definition of that word doesn’t mean that the defendant meant to kill or hurt someone else. Instead, it means that the defendant showed a reckless disregard for human life.