Spring Lake man sentenced to death for man paralyzed in 1993 assault

A murderer convicted of a 2009 Fayetteville murder recently pleaded guilty to another killing in which the victim died in 2018 from injuries sustained in a 1993 beating that left him paralyzed.

Howard Leander Barnett, 56, who had already served a prison sentence for the attack on Emanuel Lee Northe Jr., 61, pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to second-degree murder for Northe's death 25 years later. Barnett was sentenced to 15 years in prison, to be served concurrently with another murder conviction that expires in September 2030. He was given credit for the more than 8 years he served for the attack.

According to court records, Barnett's co-defendant, 48-year-old Reggie Javan Pickett, still faces a charge of first-degree murder.

Northe, an Army veteran and father of two, died on September 8, 2018, of pneumonia caused by injuries he sustained three decades ago, according to the autopsy report.

Related:How a 1993 Fayetteville attack led to a murder charge in 2023

The report notes that Northe was paralyzed by the attack, resulting in a history of seizure disorder. The required tracheostomy and feeding tubes, also a result of the quadriplegia, led to “multiple infections,” the autopsy states. Northe first developed pneumonia in June 2018, which led to hospitalization on June 25, 2018, and never recovered, according to the autopsy.