Prosecutors Seeking Death for Trooper’s Murder

By Joseph Martin

WAYNESVILLE - The District Attorney’s office in Waynesville has confirmed that it is seeking the death penalty for 37-year-old Edwardo Wong, II, who’s charged with first degree murder in the June 17 shooting death of North Carolina State Trooper David Shawn Blanton. District Attorney Mike Bonfoey said he wants to keep the trial in Haywood County with jurors also from Haywood County, so he doesn’t want to add to media coverage. “I’m not making comments about this case.”

Wong was indicted on first degree murder charges June 23. Calls to 911, in recordings recently released by the district attorney’s office, came frantically from motoring witnesses on Interstate 40 on the night of June 17. “There’s a guy fighting with a cop at the 31 on the eastbound side of I 40. I believe he just shot the cop.” A caller could also be heard saying, “Hold on buddy.”

Prosecutors have argued that there is evidence to support the existence of one or more aggravating circumstances, required by state law, to support the death penalty. Among those are: prior convictions, use of or threat of violence, capital felony to hinder law enforcement, creating a great risk of death to more than one person, and a capital felony that was especially cruel and atrocious.

Blanton stopped Wong for lack of a registration tag on a trailer he was towing. Shortly after, according to reports, he and Wong began to scuffle and Wong shot Blanton. Wong reportedly lingered over Blanton as he lay bleeding and searched through the trooper pockets. Blanton died later at Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville.

Blanton was the first tribal member to become a trooper with the North Carolina Highway Patrol. His death was a shock to both the Haywood County and Cherokee Indian Reservation communities. Blanton left behind a wife and prematurely newborn son still recovering in the hospital.

Wong has a history of violence and drugs. At the time of the shooting, Wong had been out of a Florida prison for three years, where he served time since 1998 for striking a law enforcement office in an attempt to escape. Florida Department of Corrections records said he had deprived the Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy of his weapon and radio in the attack.

Officers who searched his vehicle after Blanton was killed found marijuana, prescription pills and a white substance about the size of a golf ball.

Blanton received a hero’s memorial service attended by law enforcement agencies from across the region and country.