JACKSONVILLE, Onslow County — A Jacksonville man accused of seriously injuring a DoorDash driver in what investigators now believe was a road rage attack will remain in the Onslow County Jail without bond.
Stanley Shockley, 44, made his first court appearance Tuesday after being arrested Monday and charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
News 12’s Mary Grace Armistead was in the courtroom and attended a press conference with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office following the hearing.
In court, prosecutors said Shockley lives six houses from where Christen Phillips was attacked Aug. 1 on Shamrock Drive. Prosecutors said Shockley is accused of striking Phillips with a wooden, baseball bat-like object.
Onslow County Sheriff Chris Thomas said investigators believe the attack stemmed from a road rage incident.
“Investigation is leading us to believe that it is solely a road rage type incident, individual getting angry because a horn was blown at him,” Thomas said.
The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office previously said Phillips was stopped at the intersection of Western Boulevard and Gum Branch Road around 1:19 a.m. Aug. 1 when the vehicle in front of her did not move after the light turned green.
Phillips briefly sounded her horn, according to investigators. Deputies said the vehicle then moved before following her to the Shamrock Drive area, where she had stopped to make a delivery.
Investigators previously identified the vehicle they were searching for as a dark-colored Range Rover.
On Monday, detectives executed a search warrant at Shockley’s home on Shamrock Drive. A black Range Rover was towed from the property, and investigators said it was the vehicle involved in the road rage incident.
Thomas said identifying the vehicle and suspect required detectives to work through a large number of possibilities.
“Within a 5-mile radius of the incident there are over 35 black vehicles of that make and model in this area, and those are just the ones registered in North Carolina,” Thomas said.
Thomas said detectives spent hundreds of hours at locations and reviewing surveillance video. He said investigators were eventually able to identify Shockley using surveillance video from a gas station.
During Tuesday’s court appearance, prosecutors also said vehicle and financial information placed Shockley in the vicinity of the crime at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors further alleged that footage from Shockley’s Ring camera had been deleted.
“It seems as Shockley even wiped his Ring camera clean,” a representative from the district attorney’s office said in court.
Thomas said investigators are still retrieving evidence, including Ring camera footage they say was deleted.
Phillips previously told News 12 she was knocked unconscious during the attack.
“He thought I was dead and left me for dead,” Phillips said.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that Phillips remains hospitalized while recovering from a skull fracture. They said she has a titanium plate in her skull and a drainage port in her spine.
Shockley will remain in the Onslow County Jail without bond as the investigation continues.