A Greenville man will spend the rest of his life in prison after a Pitt County jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the 2023 killing of a 35-year-old Windsor man whose body was found stuffed inside a trash can. Tyrell Best had claimed he shot Antonio Bond in self-defense after Bond allegedly slashed him with a box cutter, but forensic testing undercut that account at trial.
Best was sentenced to life without parole for second-degree murder, with additional enhancements tied to his habitual-felon status, as reported by WITN. He was also found guilty of possession of a firearm by a felon and received up to 13 additional years for that charge. Jurors reached their verdict after the four-day trial, according to the station's report.
Body Found in Trash Can on Battle Street
The case began on October 8, 2023, when Greenville officers responded to the area of Tyson and Battle Street to investigate a suspected human body inside a trash can, per the same account. Antonio Bond, 35, whose victim location was listed as Greenville, North Carolina, was found dead with a gunshot wound that traveled through his right arm and into his chest, the station's report notes.
Crime scene analysts, officers and detectives ultimately identified Best as a suspect. Two days after the body was discovered, Greenville Police Detective Elias and a district attorney's investigator interviewed Best, who admitted he had been on Battle Street and had shot Bond, per the district attorney's office.
Forensic Evidence Undercuts Self-Defense Claim
Best told investigators that Bond had cut his stomach and showed them wounds there, insisting he had shot Bond in self-defense during a close-range struggle. But an autopsy and other testing disproved that account, according to the district attorney's office. North Carolina State Crime Laboratory DNA testing found no blood on the blade of Bond's box cutter, and the autopsy showed no gunpowder stippling on Bond's body — physical evidence that contradicted Best's version of events, per the district attorney's office.
Best and Bond were involved in the shooting. Court records also show Best had previously been charged with attempted murder in 2017, a case that fed into the habitual-felon enhancements prosecutors pursued at sentencing.
Trifurcated Trial Sealed Life Sentence
Once jurors returned their guilty verdicts, Assistant District Attorney Joel Stadiem presented sentence enhancements for Habitual Felon and Violent Habitual Felon status during a trifurcated trial structure that separated the guilt phase from hearings on Best's criminal history, according to the district attorney's office. Under North Carolina General Statutes § 14-7.7, a violent habitual felon designation requires two prior Class A through E violent felony convictions and mandates life imprisonment without parole upon conviction of a subsequent violent felony, per the Carolina Attorneys summary of the statute. Separately, North Carolina's Habitual Felon Act is cited at N.C.G.S. § 14-7.1, according to Powers Law Firm PA.
Second-degree murder involving malice is already classified as a Class B1 felony in North Carolina, carrying a statutory penalty of up to life imprisonment even before any habitual-offender enhancements apply, per the Criminal Defense Lawyer overview of the state's felony classifications. In Best's case, the violent habitual felon designation removed any possibility of parole once he was convicted of the underlying murder charge.
Pitt County District Attorney Faris C. Dixon, Jr. is identified as the county's district attorney, and his office pursued habitual-felon enhancements in Best's case. Best is now expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
