Stephan Blake Dickey, a/k/a Dye, has been sentenced to serve life plus 25 years for his role in the murder of Justin Wayne McKinney and shooting of Anna Maria Franklin.
Judge Brenda Weaver, chief judge of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit, handed down the sentence in Fannin County Superior Court Thursday morning, May 12. Weaver also sentenced Dickey on a variety of charges he picked up while jailed in Fannin County.
Weaver handed down the sentences following a jury’s verdict of guilty of all 15 charges Dickey faced in connection with the December 4, 2018, shooting of both victims. That verdict was returned May 4 after a trial that began April 18.
Court records show Dickey was sentenced to life on a malice murder charge.
On a charge of criminal attempt to commit a felony, Dickey received 20 years to serve consecutive to the malice murder sentence.
The other five years to serve, for possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, run consecutively with the criminal attempt charge.
Additional convictions of criminal attempt to commit a felony, two counts of home invasion in the first degree, and violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act resulted in additional sentences of 90 years to run concurrently with the malice murder and criminal attempt to commit a felony sentences.
Weaver also sentenced Dickey to an additional 15 years to serve on a felony charge of riot in a penal institution stemming from a March 17, 2021, incident in the Fannin County jail. Another 28 years were added that will run at the same time as other sentences, making Dickey’s total sentence to serve life plus 40 years.
The other charges stemming from his time in jail included felony obstruction of an officer and felony interference with government property.
Dickey has been in jail since his arrest the same day McKinney was shot to death in his home off Elrod Lane in Morganton.
He was originally held in a Youth Detention Facility, but later moved when he became an adult. Dickey was 15 at the time of his arrest in 2018.