Robert Windsor has been sentenced to life in prison without, but questions linger about potential illegal contact with a jury member.  If proven, it could impact the sentencing portion of the trial or all of it.

Windsor was convicted on March 12 for the murder of his former girlfriend Stephany Jo White who was discovered in the trunk of her Ford Taurus on August 20, 2005.

The jury delivered their sentence verdict about 11:45 a.m. Monday after three and a half hours of deliberation, which began on Thursday and continued Monday morning.  Immediately after the jury’s recommendation that Windsor receive life imprisonment, his attorney Jim Glover informed the judge an inmate may have had contact with juror No. 6 during the trial.

Glover said William Adams, a man currently in the Catawba County Detention Facility charged with two murders, claims another Catawba County inmate named Bucky Bolden, indicted on attempted murder, has spoken with the juror and could have spoken about the case.

If one of the jurors spoke to Bolden about the Windsor trial, the judge could rule a mistrial and essentially disregard the almost three-month long trial that began with jury selection on Dec. 31.

According to Adams, the telephone number (828) 291-6578 appears on Bolden’s mobile phone, which is the number listed for juror No. 6 on their jury summons.

Judge James W. Morgan therefore granted Glover’s request to order the Catawba County Sheriff’s Department not to delete any phone conversations from the section of the jail where Bolden is being held from Jan. 11, 2008, to present.  Morgan also ordered not to allow any phone numbers to be deleted from Bolden’s cell phone.  Glover said these orders would allow the defense to conduct an investigation and present findings in about 10 days.

Glover said Adams’ attorneys spoke with him on Monday about the situation.

In the meantime, Windsor will continue to be held at the Catawba County Detention Facility until arrangements are made to transfer him to Central Prison in Raleigh, a maximum security facility.

The record of the jury vote was also discovered to be incorrect when Morgan spoke with the jury members after delivering their sentence recommendation.  Although the 12 jurors were unanimous in their decision Windsor receive life without parole, there was one juror who disagreed on whether or not there were aggravating circumstances involved in White’s death.  Aggravating circumstances are those that warrant a harsher punishment, such as the death penalty.  Despite having one juror who believes those existed in the trial, the jury foreman told the court it was unanimous that there were not aggravating circumstances.

Assistant District Attorney Sean McGinnis was not overly concerned about the inaccuracy of the record. He said the outcome as far as the sentence would be the same regardless.

Windsor’s mother, Linda Taylor said there will be an appeal.  She did not say how soon they will file.

“I still believe he’s innocent,” she said.

She said her son never should have been convicted of first-degree murder and if anything, it should have been involuntary manslaughter instead of murder.

“To be honest, I’m surprised that’s not what he got,” Taylor said.

Taylor questions the autopsy’s accuracy.

“If the autopsy had been done properly, I think it would prove (White) was not suffocated,” she said.

Glover refused to comment on the trial.

“We appreciate the hard work of the professional men and women at the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office and the attention of the jurors during the course of the trial,” Assistant District Attorney Eric Bellas said.  “As a result of their hard work a dangerous murderer will spend the rest of his life in the Department of Corrections.”