Note: The above video is from 2017 when the first of four inmates convicted in the deaths of four Pasquotank Correctional Institution employees detailed his past, the murders of the four employees and the botched escape attempt.
PASQUOTANK COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) — The last of the four people to be charged for his role in the 2017 deaths of four Pasquotank Correctional Institution employees pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and several other charges.
Seth Jameson Frazier, 41, entered his plea in Pasquotank County Superior Court — the other charges including six counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, one count of burning a public building, one count of inciting a riot, one count of attempted escape and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.
Frazier, the only one of the four defendants not to go on trial for his role in the crimes, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without parole for each of the first-degree murder pleas, and received a sentence of 93 to 116 years for 10 related felony and one misdemeanor plea, the highest level allowed under the law.
Pitt County Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Jeffery Foster said during the sentencing that he hoped Frazier’s remaining life in prison would cause him to think often of what he and his co-defendants had done, and hoped it “haunted” him.
“Oct. 12 will be the eighth anniversary of what will go down in history as one of the most violent, horrific crimes ever committed in the state of North Carolina,” District Attorney Jeff Crudent said in a statement. “Four ordinary citizens woke up Oct. 12 and went to work as they had done countless times before, never to return home.
“Veronica Darden, Justin Smith, Wendy Shannon and Geoffrey Howe — [the prison employees who were murdered] — were people like us with dreams and aspirations, the evil that existed in those four inmates violently and without remorse, took their lives. Soon after the crimes occurred senior members of my office met with the deceased victim’s families and discussed how the cases would proceed. We cautioned them, we can either go fast, or we can do it right.
“While it was not easy, the families never wavered in their commitment to seeing that those
responsible for the murder of their loved ones were brought to justice. In the previous trials of
defendants Mikel Brady, Wisezah Buckman and Jonathan Monk, the State was able to obtain 11
sentences of death. During a meeting with the families after the last trial of Jonathan Monk, we
discussed as a group whether to try Seth Frazier and seek the death penalty or allow a plea to life without parole. While it was not an easy decision, it was agreed by all that this was the proper decision under the circumstances. It was only after the families agreed to the disposition, that I authorized the plea offer. Hopefully now that all four inmates are in prison for the rest of their lives maybe the families can begin in earnest putting this tragedy behind them and find lasting peace, they definitely deserve it.”
The first inmate to go on trial, Mikel Brady, the self-proclaimed “pack leader,” was sentenced by a jury to death in 2019 after it took them just 30 minutes to find him guilty on all counts. He told the jury everything, going step-by-step through the escape attempt.
Wisezah Buckman, the second inmate to go on trial and a five-time convicted murderer, was sentenced to death after being found guilty in 2023 of four counts of first-degree murder and 10 other felony charges in the attempted escape.
And Jonathan Monk, who was found guilty by a jury of four counts of first-degree murder and had been accused of helping start the fire at the prison before murdering the prison employees, received the death penalty in March for his role in their deaths. In addition to being sentenced to four consecutive death sentences, he received an additional five consecutive active sentences for assault with a deadly weapon wth the intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Monk also received consecutive active sentences for the attempted first-degree murder of prison employee George Midgett, felony burning of a public building, felony attempted escape and felony riot.
