The nation’s highest court will not take up the case of a North Carolina man serving a life sentence without parole in the murder of two law enforcement officers in 1997. The US Supreme Court rejected Kevin Salvador Golphin’s appeal along with dozens of other cases Tuesday.
Justices offered no commentary about the decision.
Golphin had petitioned the high court on Aug. 15. His lawyers asked the Supreme Court to consider “Whether North Carolina, in conflict with this Court’s precedents and those of other states, has violated the Eighth Amendment by creating a de facto mandatory life-without-parole sentencing regime for juvenile offenders by invariably considering the facts of the juvenile’s crime to be dispositive.”
“North Carolina has gone rogue in imposing sentences of life without parole on juvenile offenders and failing to heed this Court’s Eighth Amendment holdings, thus putting it significantly out of step with state courts around the country,” Golphin’s lawyers had argued.
The petition highlighted the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Miller v. Alabama, which ruled that mandatory sentences of life without parole, or LWOP, for juvenile offenders were unconstitutional.
“In the thirteen years since Miller, twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have banned juvenile LWOP, while five additional states currently have no juveniles serving such a sentence,” Golphin’s lawyers wrote. “Many more states have rigorously applied Miller and its progeny, ensuring that — consistent with this Court’s decisions affording juveniles significant protections under the Eighth Amendment — life without parole is imposed on only the rarest of juvenile offenders and only after ‘considering an offender’s youth and attendant characteristics … as a mitigating factor.’”
“North Carolina now has done the opposite,” the petition continued. “The decision under review is one of a series of rulings that have allowed a de facto mandatory sentencing scheme to take hold. In North Carolina, appellate courts hold that the fact that a juvenile offender committed homicide — a fact, of course, inherent to even eligibility for a life-without-parole sentence — is conclusive and requires LWOP.”
North Carolina “has effectively reinstated the type of mandatory sentencing scheme that Miller held is unconstitutional.” The state has “established itself as an extreme outlier among states with respect to Eighth Amendment jurisprudence involving minors,” Golphin’s lawyers argued.
The state government waived its right to respond to Golphin’s Supreme Court petition on Sept. 16.
A unanimous three-judge North Carolina Court of Appeals panel issued a decision in February 2024 upholding a life sentence without parole for Golphin. He and his brother killed NC State Trooper Ed Lowry and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Deputy David Hathcock in 1997.
The full state Appeals Court declined to rehear the case. The North Carolina Supreme Court rejected Golphin’s appeal without comment in March 2025.
Originally sentenced to death, Golphin’s sentence had been reduced to life in prison without parole after the US Supreme Court banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders. Golphin was 17 at the time of the murders.
Golphin challenged his reduced sentence after the US Supreme Court decision ended mandatory life sentences for juveniles. A trial judge ruled in April 2022 that Golphin’s “crimes demonstrate his permanent incorrigibility and not his unfortunate yet transient immaturity” at the time of the murders. The judge handed down consecutive sentences of life in prison without parole for the two killings.
The Appeals Court addressed Golphin’s argument that Superior Court Judge Thomas Lock reached the wrong conclusions from the evidence.
“Much of Defendant’s argument is dedicated to showing how he has improved while incarcerated, and therefore, he contends he must be considered as capable of rehabilitation within the meaning of Kelliher and Miller,” two precedent cases, wrote Appeals Court Judge Donna Stroud. “But Defendant’s argument ignores both evidence unfavorable to him and the sentencing court’s discretion in weighing the evidence.”
Among the factors judges considered was Golphin’s “incorrigibility,” meaning the possibility that he could not be reformed in prison.
“Here, after Defendant’s brother shot both officers, Defendant shot them both, again,” Stroud wrote. “The officers were incapacitated after Defendant’s brother first shot them, yet Defendant still removed Trooper Lowry’s weapon from its holster and shot each officer again. Thus, Kelliher does not prevent the sentencing court from finding Defendant to be permanently incorrigible.”
Chief Judge Chris Dillon and Judge Michael Stading joined Stroud’s opinion.
Golphin’s brother Tilmon is also serving a life sentence in connection with the murders. Tilmon Golphin had been on death row until his sentence was reduced in 2020 because of legal proceedings tied to the now-repealed Racial Justice Act.
Carolina Journal’s David Larson recounted facts of the Golphin brothers’ misdeeds in 2022, 25 years after the killings.
“Tilmon and Kevin Golphin were troubled teenage brothers from near Richmond, Virginia, who ended an interstate crime spree by shooting and killing two officers in Cumberland County, North Carolina, on Sept. 23, 1997.”
“On that September day, Tilmon, 19; and Kevin, 17; entered Financial Lenders in Kingstree, South Carolina, wearing masks and armed with a Soviet military rifle believed to be stolen from their grandfather, according to the Fayetteville Observer. They forced the two female employees into the bathroom and made them face the wall. The women heard the clicking of the rifle around half a dozen times but no shots were fired. Afterwards, the brothers left with a number of items, including one employee’s green Toyota Camry.”
“South Carolina police put out a ‘BOLO,’ or ‘be-on-the-lookout’ order, for the brothers and the green Camry. Two hours later, when Lowry pulled the Golphins over on I-95 in Fayetteville, he did not know about the BOLO. He simply noticed the driver wasn’t wearing his seatbelt.”
“Before he was aware the car was stolen, Lowry allowed Kevin, the driver, to come back and sit in the passenger seat of the cruiser with him while he wrote the ticket. But when they ran the plates and learned about the BOLO and the fact that the car was stolen, the situation escalated quickly. Lowry called for backup, and without any other state troopers available, Cumberland County Deputy David Hathcock arrived soon after.”
“Lowry drew his weapon and attempted to secure Kevin while directing Hathcock to secure Tilmon, but Kevin began to struggle with Lowry. Tilmon exited the Camry and walked back to where his brother was struggling. After the officers pepper sprayed Kevin, Tilmon ran back to get his rifle and began firing at both officers, first Hathcock then Lowry. Both were struck multiple times. With Lowry moaning on the ground, Kevin then armed himself with Lowry’s pistol and shot Lowry at least three times before shooting Hathcock as well.”
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