COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A 21-year-old man was ejected from a vehicle and died Thursday morning.

Nicholas Wilkinson, 19, was driving at excessive speeds on Shade Fisher Road outside of Whiteville and crashed into a tree around 4 a.m., according to Columbus County Highway Patrol Troopers. Wilkinson’s injuries are described as “serious.”

His passenger Ryan Hommel was ejected during the accident and died.

Neither of the young men were wearing seat belts, according to investigators.

Copyright 2012 WECT. All rights reserved.

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A Bolton woman turned 42 years old in the Pender County Jail on Monday.

Christy Ann Lowery, of the 8000 block of Old Lake Road, was arrested by the Pender County Sheriff’s Office around noon on Thursday. She was charged with driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license, reckless driving to endanger, simple worthless checks, and extradition of fugitives from other states, according to the Pender County Sheriff’s Office’s weekly intake report.

She was given $500, $400 and $200 secured bonds and was still incarcerated at the time of this post.

Copyright 2012 WECT. All rights reserved.

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WECT) – A former sergeant with the Columbus County Detention Center and an inmate were sentenced on Tuesday for charges stemming from the brutal beating of a detainee.

U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced that former Sergeant Danny Ray Duncan, 63, was sentenced to 20 months of jail, followed by two years of supervised release. Inmate Terry Lashavious McMillian, 26, was given 46 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.

“No one is above the law,” Walker stated in a news release. “Those responsible for the beating of this inmate must face consequences for their criminal conduct.”

While working on the night shift on Aug. 2, 2010 in the Detention Center in Whiteville, Duncan reportedly admitted to placing a pre-trial inmate in a cell knowing there was a “substantial risk that the inmates in the cell would assault the detainee.” He also said that he acted with “deliberate indifference to the risk of assault, and that the detainee suffered bodily injury as a result of the assault.”

McMillian, who pleaded guilty on Dec. 5, 2011 to conspiring to commit an offense against the United States, was an inmate at the time of the assault and he, along with another inmate, beat the detainee, according to Walker.

The FBI and the N.C. SBI conducted the investigation of this case.

Copyright 2012 WECT. All rights reserved.