Jordyn Dumont Murder Trial Starts

SHELBY, N.C. – Opening statements Wednesday in the murder trial of the man accused of killing a three-year-old girl in Gaston County. Assistant District Attorney Megan Rhoden told the jury, “At the end of this, we’re gonna ask you to find the defendant guilty of the murder of three-year-old Jordyn Dumont.”

Defense attorney Brent Ratchford told the jury, “The state of North Carolina’s gonna ask you to believe this is cold blooded, pre-meditated, meant-to-do-it murder. It’s not.”

Prosecutors started with the detective – undercover, so we aren’t show his face – who found Jordyn Dumont’s body in the woods in August 2016. He said, “I pulled the sheet back and seen it was a white sock with colored rings at the top of the sock.”

Jurors also saw and heard when police interviewed Skip McCullen the day he reported the toddler missing. McCullen can be seen telling them, “I just can’t believe this is happening to me. I don’t have enemies or nothing.”

“Happening to me.” That stood out – and so did this – says Detective Matt Sampson, a nearly 18-year-veteran with Gaston County police. “He said it one time at the beginning, he said ‘I hope y’all find it.’ And I noticed he said ‘it,’ and I’ve been doing this for many years. I’d made up my mind that she was probably deceased and he knew that and he was probably responsible,” testified Sampson.

Sampson says he noticed something else that day: “He (McCullen) had scratches on both legs. Some were kinda long. They looked fairly fresh.” And, “He’d told us that day he’d just went to the mailbox, and didn’t leave the yard, so I was just curious where those scratches come. They look they were made by briars or something.”

Dumont’s body was found wrapped in a fitted black sheet, in a hole in the woods near her house, under broken tree limbs and leaves. Medical records show she was beaten to death. McCullen is charged with first degree murder. He’s pleaded not guilty.