Defense Rests in Robeson County, N.C. Murder Trial

The defense in the case of a Wake County man accused of killing his wife for insurance money rested its case in Lumberton, N.C. Thursday without the defendant taking the stand.

Attorneys for Myron Britt took an early lunch to discuss the possibility of his testifying at his first-degree murder trial. But defense attorney Joe Freeman Britt told Superior Court Judge James Ammons later that Myron Britt would not testify.

Myron Britt is accused of killing his wife, Nancy Melton Britt, in August 2003 for $800,0000 in insurance. The prosecution says that Britt made the round trip from Cary to Lumberton on the night of Aug. 22, 2003, or the early morning Aug. 23, 2003, to shoot his wife.
Nancy Britt’s body was found about 3:30 a.m. Aug. 23, 2003, at the Lumberton home of her sister.

The state is seeking the death penalty. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

In testimony Thursday, John H. Dillon Jr., a forensic expert from Virginia, contradicted earlier prosecution testimony that bullets taken from a baseboard in the home of Myron Britt’s mother and the bullet taken from Nancy Britt’s body were fired from the same gun.

Dillon testified that while the bullets shared similar characteristics, a microscopic examination was inconclusive as to whether they were fired from the same gun.

Myron Britt’s brother, Dickie Britt, had testified previously that he gave Myron their father’s .25-caliber pistol about a month before Nancy Britt was killed.

The pistol had gone off accidentally two years before Nancy Britt’s death in the Britt’s mother’s home in Lumberton, Dickie Britt said.

During cross-examination, Dillon did testify that the bullet taken from Nancy Britt’s body was similar to another bullet found in Myron Britt’s Ford Explorer during a search in September 2003.