Is Brunswick County Framing Antoine Graham to Cover for a Deputy Who Killed an Innocent Woman?

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. – Brunswick County wants the public to believe Antoine Graham is a murderer.

But the facts tell a very different — and disturbing — story.

A woman is dead. A sheriff’s deputy ran a red light at high speed. And somehow, a man who was already in custody miles away is now charged with second-degree murder, sitting behind bars on a $1 million bond, while the deputy responsible for the crash faces only misdemeanor charges.

If this sounds unbelievable, that’s because it should be.

On February 18, 2025, Brunswick County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan Kye was rushing to assist other deputies involved in a pursuit. According to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Kye was traveling northeast on U.S. 17 at Ploof Road with lights and sirens activated when he failed to stop at a red light and slammed into a vehicle driven by Cora Cartrette, who was lawfully turning left.

Troopers say Kye was traveling 75 miles per hour at the time of impact — after allegedly slowing down from an earlier reported speed of 90 miles per hour. His patrol car ran off the roadway. Cartrette’s car struck a curb, left the road, and crashed into a utility pole.

Cora Cartrette died right there.

Yet, instead of the spotlight staying where it belongs — on the deputy who ran a red light at highway speed — Brunswick County’s focus quickly shifted to a familiar name.

Antoine Graham.

Before Cartrette was killed, Graham was pulled over in an Aldi parking lot on Ploof Road. According to his family, as deputies approached his vehicle, Graham began hyperventilating. He was reliving trauma.

Twelve years earlier, Brunswick County deputies nearly killed him.

In 2013, at a DWI checkpoint in Leland, deputies opened fire on the vehicle Graham was driving, shooting him eight times and shooting passenger Jerry Melvin, after they failed to stop. Witnesses told local media deputies were “blasting the car to pieces.” The SUV was riddled with nearly 50 bullets. More than 20 were found inside.

Despite all of that, DA Jon David justified the shooting. The dash-cam footage of the incident was never released. Years later, in 2017, Graham and Melvin sued and settled with the county for $155,000.

That history matters.

Because on February 18, 2025, as Graham sat in his car shaking, asking for a moment to calm down, deputies didn’t de-escalate. He was reportedly pulled for a bad tag. They demanded him get out of the car. Graham again asked if he could have a moment. The officer wasn’t trying to hear it.

Graham panicked and drove off — not toward anyone, not toward traffic — but in circles near a friend’s home, trying to get away from the very people who once nearly killed him.

After coming out of the hyperventilating episode tied to his PTSD, Graham pulled over on Blackwell Road, laid flat on the ground, and surrendered. Deputies approached with their guns drawn and placed him in handcuffs. Once restrained, Graham began hyperventilating again, prompting deputies to call EMS to evaluate him.

And here’s where the official narrative begins to collapse.

Watchdog investigators reviewing dispatch records told The North Carolina Beat that Kye never radioed that he was responding to Graham’s pursuit. At the time of the fatal crash, Kye was roughly 1.9 miles away — and Graham was already in custody.

The man now accused of murder wasn’t fleeing anymore. He wasn’t driving. He wasn’t even free.

Graham was charged with felony fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, driving while impaired, driving while license revoked, reckless driving to endanger, resisting a public officer, possession of marijuana up to one ounce, and failure to maintain lane—and was initially given a $20,000 bond, according to a motion for a bond reduction.

Then, during his first court appearance later that same day, the State moved to raise that bond to one million dollars and the judge granted their request.

Months later, prosecutors on October 27, 2025 — the same exact day Deputy Kye was indicted — indicted Graham on a second-degree murder without regard to human life charge.

The contrast is impossible to ignore.

Deputy Kye, according to court documents, was cited for unlawfully causing Cartrette’s death by running a red light. His charges amount to misdemeanor death by vehicle and a traffic violation.

Graham, who wasn’t at the crash, who was already detained, who has documented trauma from Brunswick County deputies shooting him eight times, now faces life-altering consequences as if he were the one behind the wheel that killed Cartrette.

At the time of her death, Cartrette was on her to work at Chick-fil-A, just down the street from where she was killed.