of witnesses today which they hope would present mitigating circumstances. among the first to testify was travion's half sister. she talked about what she said was the constant mental abuse that her dad gave travion and talked about the physical beatings he endured as a youngster and then they brought in a series of teachers and psychologists all of whom added a different perspective to the young man's profile. >> he was a great kid. he did well in the program. he came in, he was one of the most impulsive children i've worked with. but he loved the structure. he cared about other kids. >> travion was hospitalized, let's see, three times during his elementary school years. he was hospitalized again in february of 20 owe 5 during his sixth grade year. he was one of my favorite people. >> he's one of your favorites.

>> he was just a kind, loving, respectful kid. >> late this afternoon, the defense said that it finished presenting its witnesses and now the state tomorrow will get a chance to present rebuttal witnesses. it'll be a half day session. court will end at about foon time tomorrow. and then on monday, the judge says they'll have closing arguments and after that, the case will go to the jury for them to decide death or not. wncn news now. just a reminder, there are two other people involved in this case. ronald took a plea deal and is serving a life sentence for the murder. sara redden testified during smith's trial and is still being held in jail. she's believed to be the get away driver and is charged with first-degree murder but has not gone on trial yet. we've learned new informs tonight from search warrants in the murder of a wake forest murder. documents show us he asked for

number as he strangled her to death in october. search warrants show he confessed to police that he used a rock to shatter a back window at the wake forest home before hitting her in the back of the head with a hammer and using a wire to strangle her. after a three day nationwide man hunt. police arrested him at a mississippi hotel after authorities said he robbed a bank there. time is running out. by court order state lawmakers have to have new congressional districts drawn up tomorrow after three federal judges ruled the lawmakers used race as a main factor in drawing the maps. this is what the new proposed maps look like. wncn political reporter bo minnick joins us live with more on today's developments. >> reporter: house lawmakers are about to start meeting here in their chamber soon. within the last hour, those

new bill that would move the congressional primary, just the congressional primary to june 7th. democratics asked republicans wouldn't it make more sense to move all the primaries to a later date. >> right now we're going forward with the march 15th primary. >> that's the message to house lawmakers from the executive director of the state board of elections. those lawmakers are tasked with figuring out whether or not the state should hold a separate primary for congressional races and when. >> i'm very concerned about the people becoming confused about what the elections are about. or how it's going to run. or who they're going to vote for. or where they're going to vote. >> by changing the congressional districts at this point, less than a month from the march 15th primary, the state board of elections said realistically the state will need to hold the congressional primary at a later date. some democratics question whether the entire election including the presidential

then that would save us approximately 9.5 to 10 million dollars by only having one statewide pray marry. >> most of the cost of the 2015 have all ready been spent. >> and actually just seconds ago, house lawmakers went back into session. republican lawmakers have made it clear that they do not want to pushback the full election. presidential primary. there actually was an amendment offered by democratic lawmakers darryn jackson who you heard from in that story. he tried to see if they would pushback the entire primary to june 27th. but that did fail along party lines. now again the house has gone back into session. michael highland is inside right now. he'll have more coming up on the developments ahead on news at 11:00. and we'll be back here tomorrow to follow the developments as they happen. bo minnick, wncn news now. if you're frustrated by the

we caught up with folks who say this must be done fairly. >> if you don't get the chance to participate in a free and fair election, democracy doesn't work. if people can redraw the borders in order to benefit their own political interests, that doesn't represent the interest of all north carolinians. >> the voters should have a right in having themselves represented properly. >> we have laws in place that aren't followed. i think the question is how do you get the legislature in the court to follow the law that exists. >> if you have questions or would like to have more information or a detailed look at the map. visit wncn.com. speaking about the presidential election donald trump says he's not worried about losing support from catholics after pope francis suggested he's not christian because he wants to build a wall between u.s. and mexico. trump called pope francis a very political person before the pope's trip to mexico. pope francis made light of the comments while taking questions from reporters today saying a person who only thinks about

end quote. trump also immediately fired back at pope francis calling disgraceful. >> for a religious leader to question a person's faith is disgraceful. i'm proud to be a christian. and as president, i will not allow christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened unlike what is happening now. >> fierce competitors for the gop nomination, marco rubio and jeb bush came to trump's defense today. a tree trimmer is dead and another is hurt after being hit by a car in a work zone this morning. it happened around 8:00 on prank road. that's near north rockingham street and robins in moore county. >> it was unavoidable. these guys practice all their safety precautions. but you know, no matter how much they practice, or they conduct these safety exercises when an accident like this takes place, there's no

>> the aberdeen times tells wncn the worker who died is 15- year-old tony wood. the second victim was air lifted to the hospital. there's no still no word on his identity or condition. police say the driver may have suffered some kind of medical issue that likely caused the accident. highway patrol is investigating a deadly crash after a passenger was ejected when one car t-boned another. it happened on nc 42 at the clayton bypass in johnston county this morning. one driver was taken to the hospital. the other driver is okay. troopers say the person who was ejected was not wearing a seat belt. and in durham, a deputy and a 17-year-old girl are recovering after a crash near pleasant drive around 8:00 this morning. deputies say the teen pulled out in front of the deputy, both were taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. no charges have been filed at this time. police looking for the suspects behind an assault and robbery at a local hotel.

comfort inn at fuquay arena. he allegedly agreed to pay a woman $300. at the time, two suspects kicked in the door and demanded the money. police say the victim's wife took him to the hospital and we briefly spoke with his wife but she declined to provide any more details. wncn has new details on the nc state professor accused of stealing money from student organizations. jonathan rodriguez has the latest. where did the money go? >> we attained detailed search warrants to day. charles was stealing money and sending it to a former student. you're charles. >> he's accused of funneling out $70,000 from three student clubs where he served as an advisor. >> you've been charged with three counts of embezzlement. >> a treasurer noticed missing money. and immediately notified the university. charles admitted he took the

student police found wire transfers made directly to her. she thought it was a loan. we talked to students when the news broke. >> it's shocking. i can't believe somebody would do that. and it's our student's money. money's hard to come by. when you have somebody taking it, that's shocking. >> he told police he used the money to help a student pay medical bills and for a trailer. we found this one listed in her fame. he also bought her a new prius. he's on house arrest. we tried to talk to him about it. but no answer. a student told police she quote thought he was paying for a love child but wasn't sure. a supervisor said it appeared the professor tried to put money back into the funds from his own retirement account. arrested. we reached out about the hear back. police are reviewing the contents of his computer and

what a game in chapel hill. duke beating north carolina at the last second. still ahead on wncn, we'll take a look at those final moments and let you know what it means for the rest of the season. >> hear from the mother of a girl who nearly took her life on interstate 40 this week. why the mother says a popular

whole ordeal temperatures heading for the 30s. we're going to repeat all this again tomorrow. and believe it or not, with clouds this weekend, it's going to at devry university's college of business, we're looking for the go-getters. so if you want to learn what's been business-world tested today, and make an impact tomorrow, you're our kind of different. devry university's college of business.

on air, online, wherever you are, this is wncn news at 7:00. you have to take a look at this. one person is critically injured. look at that. wow. after a helicopter crashed near pearl harbor this afternoon, five people were safely recovered from the water and taken to the hospital. here it is again. operations have been suspended. it could have been so much worse. the mother of a deaf teen says a raleigh police officer saved her daughter's life after he used sign language to help talk her off a bridge. we first told you about the story on wednesday. you've shared this video hundreds of times from our facebook since then.

and talks to david hurst about her message. >> i was scared. i didn't know what to do. >> it was a long, helpless hour for maria as she watched her daughter stand on a bridge over interstate 40 tuesday afternoon. >> if nobody wasn't there, she probably would have jumped. >> she says she'll be forever grateful for a raleigh police officer who used sign language to help talk down her deaf daughter. >> i thank him so much for helping my daughter. >> the 16-year-old was up here for over an hour. she left a note saying she was going to come up here because her mom took away her phone. pretty much she got upset and herself. her mom was trying to protect her after she was using anonymous messaging apps on her phone such as kick. it's been linked to a growing number of child sex abuse cases. >> this phone has really destroyed the young kids out here. >> the officer has declined to be identified and the raleigh

have no asl training program the officer learned how to sign on his own. >> normally when the police have to be called, don't nobody know sign language. i'm very excited somebody was out there to communicate with her. >> she hopes the powerful moment will encourage more people to learn sign language leading to more shared connections and maybe saved lives in raleigh, david hurst, wncn news now. that teen backed away from the ledge after her therapist arrived on the scene. she was not harmed and is staying at a local crisis center. if you need help, we have suicide prevention resources on wncn.com. another state university is renaming a building. they voted to rename acock auditorium. us the tees haven't decided on the name. today's vote follows similar

acock was a supporter of white supremacy and school segregation. despite renaming sanders hall originally named for williams sanders, a member of the kkk. put your alligator hunting gear away. they want to gather more information about how many gators are in the state and cop a management plan. they decided against holding an alligator hunting season this year. in the future agents may work with hunters to allow the harvesting of alligators in areas where they are a nuisance. >> now your wncn weather forecast. my life. school shout out before we jump into the forecast. i want to say hi to my friends at the envision science academy in raleigh. i got to visit with them today. all the fifth graders there you can see us standing in front of

talked about weather and tv and a lot about the state of north carolina. mr. burton's class, a big fan of his. he's a fellow beard member like myself. and it's 42 degrees in raleigh where the envision science academy is. thanks for watching and having me over today. great day to be outside. it was definitely an outside recess day today. it's also a car washing day. we have a couple more left of those before the rain moves in. i think you're clear to go friday and saturday if you want to wash your car. sunday we put a rain chance in. and as you can see, we've raised the rain chances on monday and tuesday so you can let mother nature take care of the car next week. so tonight, it's still chilly outside. we have a big winter warm up saturday and sunday. but that's not tonight. with clear skies and dry weather, we'll drop to 40 degrees at 8:00. 36 at 10:00. we continue through the 30s over night. and after walking out the door this morning with low 30s, it's upper 20s as we wrap up the work and school week.

will be in charge tomorrow. but it's kind of helping keep our temperatures down now. because it's to our north. and the winds are filtering in cool air. that's going to change as we head into the weekend. the weather map today will look pretty much the same tomorrow. not a lot of changes. the changes come this weekend. notice the area of high pressure slides offshore. that brings winds out of the south that will bring someone close to 70 saturday or sunday. maybe both days. but it's also leaving. something else has to fill the void. that's going to be cloud cover. and eventually rain. we have added rain into the forecast late sunday. wouldn't cancel anything. not a wash out. just a couple spotty showers late in the day sunday. and it's a little more than spotty showers next week. and i'm talking still monday, tuesday, and wednesday. all three days. a series of low pressure systems and a cold front will

but bring us good rain chances. not severe rain. but another one to two inches. and it's a rain situation. even though it's cooler it's not cold enough for snow. so we'll worry about that later. let's enjoy the weekend. first of all, i'll take you through saturday. not as cold to start off. if you're up early, garage sales, running errands. 40 degrees at 8:00. a couple clouds in the afternoon as we get in the 60s. saturday is also one month until spring officially begins. perfect timing. giving us an early taste. sunday also not as chilly. 50 degrees as you head out the door to church. maybe do some shopping. by lunch time, we're up to 62. and we have more clouds sunday. but it's going to be warmer. and it's also late in the day that we could see that small chance of rain as temperatures will be in the mid to upper 60s. tomorrow, it's barely into the 50s. so another cool day. skies. right around 50 in the triangle. 54 down in fayetteville.

takes us from 51 tomorrow up to 66 saturday. 68 on sunday. so let's just call that close to 70. right? watch out for a couple showers. nothing significant. and monday, tuesday, and wednesday, could be some significant rain. out of all the things i'm worried about, heavy down pours are the biggest thing. not severe, no snow and ice to mix in. kids, we will be going to school and we've got it monday, tuesday, and wednesday before dryer weather returns on thursday. but as you can see, the weekend even though we've changed things up with a few extra clouds and that small chance of rain sunday, it's going to be one of the warmer weekends we've had in quite sometime. >> all in all not too bad. because we're not talking about snow. >> and remember last weekend, we didn't get above freezing in spots. >> that's right. it's a little warmer than that this weekend. >> well it was hot last night in chapel hill. duke and north carolina with another classic last night.

re does disappoint. duke and north carolina battling it to the last second for chapel hill. >> for duke its their fourth straight win over u.n.c and solidifies their spot in the tournamentntthis year. it makes things more interesting for u.n.c. we're joined now with more on what the future holds for both teams.

late and watch the end of the duke north carolina game were probably a bit surprised this morning the tar heels led the entire contest behind the fantastic play of bryce johnson. johnson had 29 points and 19 rebounds. brandon ingram took over late in the game on his way to a 20 point night. and another freshman hit a corner three pointer that sent the devils to the win. the tar heels reeling from a loss while looking to refocus on another big game saturday. >> it's a wonderful rivalry to be involved in. but i'm tired of being just involved. we have to play better. >> i mean, the game against miami coming up might be the biggest game of the year for us. it shouldn't be hard owe be motivated for that. >> first place in the acc is on the line. the tar heels and the hurricanes are 10 and 3. the next matchup is saturday march 5th in durham. scammers claiming to be the

it's something that could impact anyone as millions of americans file taxes. local police departments are stepping up. tonight at 11:00, what you need to be on the look out for and the measures scammers are taking to get your money. we're watching developments in the general assembly with redistricting. we'll have the latest on the luming vote in the house and when you'll be able to vote. >> these stories and more on

here's a look at what's here's a blast from the past coming up, a retro version of the first ambulances to hit the streets in wake county. that was in 1976 and it was unveiled today. wake county emergency management services is celebrating 40e years of service. the truck will be added to the fleet but the only difference between this truck and the current one is the look. you still have the high-tech look. still very modernized. >> no medical advances from the

sticks to bite on for pain. >> no they've stuck with what we need now. >> modern stuff. the good stuff. temperatures topping out at with at&t the choice is yours. you only pay for the services you need to make your bundle work for you. call now to get high speed internet for just $15 a month for 12 months with a one-year agreement... ...when you bundle with tv, home phone or even wireless on one bill. with high speed internet, you'll get 99.9 percent reliability with a connection you can count on. call now to get high speed internet for just $15 a month for 12 months with a one-year agreement... ...when you bundle with tv,

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>> judge judy: you booked a series of dates with the defendant at her venue. this says no refunds or exchanges. >> announcer: this jewelry seller paid for a place to work. >> i went there. there was no other vendors. there was no monica. and she said, "oh, sorry. i'll buy you a beer the next time i see you." >> announcer: but is the judge buying what she's selling? >> she told me she's hard up for money. she wants all of her money back. >> judge judy: she doesn't want to deal with you. >> announcer: "judge judy." you are about to enter the courtroom of judge judith sheindlin. captions paid for by cbs television distribution kerri kelley-chilcoat is suing event planner monica gutierrez for the return of money and lost revenue. >> byrd: order! all rise. this is case number 426