Candidate’s Slaying Tied to Killer’s Romantic Woes

An Indian judicial candidate was slain by a youth who blamed him for a romantic problem, not for political reasons, authorities said today. One suspect was jailed and the other committed suicide, they said.

Julian Pierce, a 42-year-old Lumbee Indian who was running against the Robeson County district attorney for Superior Court judge, was gunned down Saturday at his home.

Robeson County Sheriff Hubert Stone said Sandy Gordon Chavis, 24, a Lumbee Indian, was arrested this morning on a murder warrant.

The dead man was identified as John Anderson Goins, 24, also an Indian, whose body was found this morning in a closet at his father’s home, where he had gone to the house after eluding police who tried to arrest him. Stone said he died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

“I think it shows the people that nothing else is involved,” Stone said at a news conference this morning. “I think the people of Robeson County will understand that it’s just another murder. I think the tension will drop now that we’ve made an arrest.”

“I can assure the world that there was no political involvement in the case,” he said.

Pierce, divorced since December, 1983, was dating a woman whose daughter had been involved with Goins and the man blamed him for difficulties with the girl, Stone said.

The sheriff said Chavis signed a confession stating that Goins, who had worked as a security guard in Raleigh, was the triggerman in the slaying.

Commissioners in the troubled county had urged the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Pierce killing because of fears it was racially linked.