OXFORD, N.C. — The beginning of the third week of the Eric Campbell double murder trial in Oxford, North Carolina was dominated by a number of defense witnesses that personally knew Eric and his father Ed Campbell.
Eric Campbell, 23, is on trial in connection with the New Year’s Eve 2014 deaths of Jerome and Dora Faulkner. They were found murdered in their Oak Hill, North Carolina home. Their bodies were found in the back of a truck that Edward Campbell was driving when he pulled over on Interstate 64 in Greenbrier County on New Year’s Day 2015 after his son, in another vehicle, had been stopped by local police. Edward Campbell opened fire on two Greenbrier County police officers. Edward Campbell later killed himself in jail.
Defense witness Shane Warman, who testified Monday, said Eric Campbell had suffered abuse at the hands of his father since they became best friends in elementary school.
“Eric would describe certain incidents that would go on,” Warman said on the stand. “He told me about times of Ed stomping on his head if Eric was disobedient. There were times when Ed would get angry, if anyone was present he would send them away then kick and punch holes in the walls and break things.”
Warman said over the course of his whole life he never saw Eric stand up to his father one time. Warman testified Eric once told him, “that is my dad and even though he has made mistakes he will always be my father.”
Warman, who stayed with Eric many times growing up and lived with him as an adult, said Ed Campbell make is children cook and take meth because it made them work harder. He admitted to buying Sudafed for the elder Campbell so he could cook meth.
Warman said his parents had met Ed Campbell and were terrified of him, Warman also added the night he saw Ed Campbell physically threatening his daughter Holly that he and Eric left because they were intimidated and didn’t want to get involved. When asked by the prosecution what they did after they left, Warman said they played video games and went to bed.
At one point during his testimony Warman described an incident he personally witnessed.
“He would just get up in his face, grab his arm, spit on him,” Warman said. “That was about as far as he would take it, he made sure never to make a scene in front of people, especially me.”
Warman’s wife Jennifer Warman, who also lived with Eric for a period of time, testified following her husband Monday.
She said that Eric Campbell was like a father to his siblings and always took care of them. Warman also testified Eric told her he had dreams that were memories of things that happened in “that house” and said it was like an elephant on his chest.
Dr. Ayesha Chaudhary, a psychologist from Duke University and expert witness for the defense in this case, testified those dreams and other symptoms that Eric Campbell showed seemed to indicate that Campbell suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“My general impression was that Mr. Eric Campbell was in great distress,” Chaudhary said. “He was horrified by the nature of the events that he had witnessed, that he had not been able to do anything to intervene. He also blamed himself as being a terrible person who had never been able to stand up to his father his whole life.”
Chaudhary gave Campbell multiple psychological screenings for PTSD, depression, and other mental health issues to see what Eric Campbell’s state of mind was before, during, and after the crimes.
Some of the test results for Campbell included a score of 6 out of 40 on psychopathic tests, which is lower than the 20 range criminals usually score in according to Chaudhary. Campbell also scored a 32 out of 60 on a depression screening, which is the range for upper levels of moderate depression.
The biggest test for the defense’s narrative was the PTSD screening.
“A score of 0-19 is asymptomatic, 20-39 is mild, 40-59 is moderate, 60-79 is severe, and greater than 80 is extreme PTSD,” Chaudhary said. “Mr. Eric Campbell’s scores on the scale are 65 for present day, and lifetime he scores 100, that is well above the cut off for extreme PTSD.”
This expert testimony could be big in the defense’s narrative that Eric Campbell was so abused by his father that he was afraid to contact the authorities or do anything that would have prevented the murders of the Faulkners.
Chaudhary said she was stunned by the amount of times Family Protective Services in Texas had investigated the Campbell family,
“There was over a 1,000 pages worth of material,” Chaudhary said.
If found guilty, Eric Campbell faces the death penalty.
Troy Alexander contributed to this story.