JOSHUA Bailey was a North Carolina man who was kidnapped and murdered in a disturbing, violent plot in 2008.
Bailey’s loyalty to a small criminal enterprise was in question at the time of his death when he was just 20 years old.
2
Who was Joshua Bailey and what happened to him?
As a child, Joshua Bailey was the victim of mental and physical abuse.
He and his two brothers were determined by the Department of Social Services to be of “special needs”.
Bailey was adopted at age 8 by his parents, Steve and Julie, who settled the family in Orange County, North Carolina.
Later on, Bailey had become affiliated with a small and disorganized group of drug users and petty criminals led by Brian Minton.
Minton, under the suspicion that Bailey or fellow crew member Matt Johnson had been communicating with authorities, orchestrated a fight between Bailey and Johnson to determine who was loyal.
Bailey was ultimately singled out, and while in Minton’s garage, he was restrained and then driven by a co-conspirator to a forested area.
Most read in News
“This young man was forced to dig his own grave,” Dr. Kevin Greene of the State Medical Examiner's Office wrote in the report.
Bailey was shot in the back of the head.
Who was charged in Joshua Bailey’s murder?
The gunman was later alleged to be Matt Johnson.
A search warrant reveals that Johnson told prosecutors that he was held captive by Minton after killing Bailey.
During this period, Minton held a gun to Johnson’s head to intimidate him and beat him with a metal pipe to make him suffer.
Charges were brought against ten people in total, including Minton’s mother and father, who assisted their son in obtaining muriatic acid to hasten Bailey’s decomposition, according to ibilbio.org.
Charges were also brought against Sarah Krombach for assisting in Johnson’s kidnapping after the Bailey killing.
2
Will Bailey’s killers ever be set free?
According to a paper written by Bailey’s mother, it took nearly five years for the defendant to come to trial.
According to ABC7, six of the ten defendants, including Minton and Johnson, were eligible for the death penalty, but capital punishment was not applied in this case.
Minton was found guilty of first-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison by Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson.
North Carolina Department of Public Safety records reveal that this is Minton’s second stint in prison after a 2007 gun charge.
The same records indicate Minton has since attempted to escape prison.
Given no possibility of parole, this will be Minton’s final and permanent imprisonment.
Read More on The US Sun
Johnson pled guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping and was sentenced to 24 to 30 years.
In the aftermath of their son's death, Bailey's parents established Josh's Hope, a non-profit that offers vocational training in carpentry and cooking for young adults struggling with substance abuse or mental health conditions.
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
