Longest serving North Carolina state lawmaker pleads guilty to misdemeanor in shooting at home

NC senator pleads guilty to misdemeanor charge

WHITEVILLE, N.C. — North Carolina’s longest-serving lawmaker won’t serve jail time after pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault for shooting a former client in a case that earlier was deemed a felony.

A judge on Thursday accepted a misdemeanor guilty plea from state Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus. Judge D. Jack Hooks fined Soles $1,000.

Soles had been indicted on a felony assault charge last month. A felony conviction would have disqualified him from holding public office.

Authorities said Soles shot 22-year-old Thomas Kyle Blackburn after two intruders kicked in the front door of the lawmaker’s Tabor City home last August. Blackburn wasn’t badly hurt.

Elected to the General Assembly in 1968, Soles is the state’s longest continuously serving lawmaker.