RFP Staff
♦ Gary Andrew Cureton, 54, plead guilty today at the county courthouse to avoid the death penalty for the baseball bat murder of his former girlfriend Joan Marie Know Lark, 49. Lark lived in the 100 block of West Spencer Street in East Spencer, N.C. The murder occurred in January 2012 in the early morning while Lark’s 6 grandchildren slept upstairs.
Cureton will receive life in prison without a chance of parole.
Cureton became an immediate prime suspect during a joint investigation conducted by Rowan County Sheriff’s investigators in connection with the SBI and the E. Spencer Police Department. Lark’s family knew that the victim received numerous phone threats from Cureton which Lark recorded. However no restraining order was ever taken out against Cureton.
By the early afternoon of the day of the murder Sheriff Office detectives found Cureton at a house on Concord Lake Road in Kannapolis. Cureton was had evidence of blood spatter on his person and was wearing Lark’s jacket at the time of his arrest.
In today’s proceedings at the Rowan County Courthouse the case was prosecuted by Rowan County District Attorney Brandy Cook.
Cureton was originally charged with first degree murder, robbery with firearms or other dangerous weapons, and burglary (first degree) back January 27th 2012.
Cureton previous criminal record:
