I am Jeremy Dunlap. I am currently serving a life sentence for having participated in a terrible crime. Seven years ago I was twenty years old and dating a girl of seventeen I thought
I was madly in love. Late one night, my girlfriend let me into her basement bedroom through a
window. Naturally, we had sex. Unfortunately, her mother entered her room as we were lying
there and proceeded, like any mother, to become enragedl I heard her say she would be telling
her father in the morning and all the while I was hurrying to get my clothes on to leave.
I did not totally leave, however. I basically hung around in the neighborhood, catnapping in my car.
I watched the house until I saw her father leave for work and her mother leave for an errand. What
ensued was a conversation on how to handle this situation. She said she just wanted to kill her mother and she was serious.
We bantered around ideas, as I thought the killing part had to be a joke. It wasn't! In all the in-
tensity of that day, we did end up killing her mother and attempted to dispose of the body. It was
a horrible choice and unbelievable to this day.
I do not want to get into all the details in one sitting, but suffice it to say, that a
due to poor representation and pressure to remove the potential for the death penalty as a
choice for the jury, I entered a plea agreement with the state for a life sentence without the poss-
ibilty of parole. By pleading guilty and helping the state, I could be assured my life.
I was told repeatedly that whatever she got, I would get or vice versa. By removing the
possibility of death from me, she benefitted also. She was tried in 2001 and convicted of 1st
degree murder and given life without. However, because she had the benefit of a trial, she was
eligible for appeal.
In 2005, the appellate court voted 2-against and 1-for overturning her sentence on a tech-
nicality (which I will elaborate on another time). Evidently, at the appellate level, all three judges have
to be in agreement, or the case is overturned. She was also awarded a change of venue. I was
then brought to Marion, NC then sent to Hendersonville jail, against my will to testify against
her once again.