Hung jury for case involving Sampson County deputy shot in leg during struggle

A trial involving the 2022 shooting of a Sampson County deputy ended Friday with a jury unable to reach a verdict on a serious charge.

2024-10-29

Deputy Caitlin Emanuel was shot on July 23, 2022, while investigating a suspected stolen truck.

Emanuel, who was responding to a vehicle theft call near Roseboro, got into a struggle with Michael Walthall when authorities said Walthall jump out of the woods and started strangling her. The deputy's gun went off during the struggle, shooting her twice in the leg.

"The first bullet went here. [It] broke my femur and it was not an exit wound," Emanuel previously told WRAL News. "Then, with my foot, it went in through the back of my heel and out the side of my foot."

Emanuel's partner, deputy Tyler Spell, applied a tourniquet and rushed her to the hospital. Emanuel told WRAL News she thought she was going to die in the moment.

"I knew that I was going to die that night,” Emanuel said. “Whether it be with a gunshot to the head or however it was, I knew I was going to die that night."

On Friday, a jury was in deadlock over whether Walthall was guilty of assault on a law enforcement officer with intent to kill.

The jury was undecided 11-1 on three out of five felony charges. In the end, Walthall was found guilty on lesser charges of assault by strangulation and larceny of a firearm.

It's not the outcome Sampson County District Attorney Ernie Lee expected.

"I've tried a bunch of cases in my career ... over 230 something trials," Lee said. "I know that anything can happen in a trial, but I was still surprised by this based upon the strength of case."

WRAL News asked Sheriff Jimmy Thornton why the jury was undecided.

"All juries are instructed by the judge that they've got to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and there's got to be that element of intent," Thornton explained.

When WRAL News asked the sheriff what part the jury doubted, Thornton answered, "I can't answer that. I don't really know."

Emanuel has endured multiple surgeries and rehab since the 2022 shooting. In the courtroom last week, the sheriff said she took the stand and delivered emotional testimony.

In a recent Facebook post, Emanuel wrote, "I’ve spent a week sitting in the courtroom reliving my incident minute by minute. My family has sat reliving this, once again. Better yet, I’ve spent 2 years and 3 months reliving it, whether it’s been mentally or physically, through nightmares or just walking out in public."

She went on to write, "I pray that nobody has to sit in the same seat that I did this week and watch everything just crumble. I pray that no LEO family has to go through what my family has been through in the last 2 years, but more so in the last week."

Authorities are holding Walthall in the Sampson County Detention Center while he awaits sentencing on the lesser charges.

Lee said he plans to meet with the two attorneys who tried the case to determine if they will go back to court on the more serious charges that weren't decided in the case.