A Wake County jury convicted Byron Waring of first-degree murder on June 28, for the murder of former N.C. State student Lauren Redman in 2005. Jurors have not yet given Waring a sentence, but have only two choices: life in prison without parole or death. A Wake County jury has not sentenced anyone to death since 2001. On November 8, 2005, Raleigh police officer J.F. Taylor responded to a reported rape and stabbing at the Dominion Walnut Creek Apartments on Gorman Street. When he arrived, he found Redman, a lab technician and former English major, dead in breezeway of her building.

According to search warrants, Redman gave a description of the two men she said were responsible before she died. That description led law enforcement to question Waring and Joseph Sanderlin.

Waring and Sanderlin were arrested within days for first degree murder. George Sasser, a former roommate of Redman’s, was also arrested for being an accessory after a murder when he warned Waring and Sanderlin the police were looking for them, according to the warrants.

In his confession, Waring said he and Sanderlin went to Redman’s apartment to rob her, but when she resisted he held her down while Sanderlin raped her, according to the News and Observer. They each began to stab her with a butcher knife 28 times. They then fled with her cell phone, wallet and car.

During their investigation, detectives located blood drops on the top of Waring’s shoes, and officers found an item belonging to Redman in the same area that Waring was questioned.

“Waring confessed to being involved in the murder and rape of Lauren Redman,” reads the police report. “He further advised that Joseph Sanderlin was the person who committed the rape. He confessed that both he and Sanderlin stabbed the victim.”

As the sentencing phase began last Friday, Waring’s defense argued he was “mentally slow,” according to the News and Observer.

Waring has a court date scheduled for Friday. Sanderlin’s trial has not yet begun.