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A North Carolina state trooper was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the killing of a Cumberland County sheriff’s deputy.
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A grand jury indicted Sgt. Nekime Oxendine in the March 27 death of Capt. Adam David Bean. A judge ordered that he be held without bail.
Oxendine has worked for the State Highway Patrol for 18 years, according to patrol records. He was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, spokesperson Lt. Chris Knox previously told The News & Observer.
Bean, 42, who was the assistant chief of detectives, worked for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office for nearly two decades.
News of the indictment was first reported by WRAL.
After the shooting, Cumberland County officials said only that Bean’s killing stemmed from a domestic dispute between two off-duty officers and that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) was handling it. A Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said a woman at the center of the dispute was a victim of domestic violence.
The woman, whom The N&O isn’t naming because she is an alleged victim, also works for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. She is also the sister of Col. Freddy Johnson Jr., the head of the State Highway Patrol.
An N&O investigation earlier this year found she appeared to live with Bean at a Dottie Circle address in Hope Mills before moving to the Seattle Slew Lane address, where officials found Bean in the front yard shot. Hope Mills is about 70 miles south of Raleigh.
The Highway Patrol is conducting its own investigation into Bean’s killing, spokesperson Lt. Christopher Knox said in an email.
“This is a difficult and tragic event for all involved,” he wrote.
The murder charge, which carries an automatic sentence of life in prison upon conviction, comes more than five months after the March killing. But North Carolina law enforcement experts said in interviews that extended SBI investigations are typical.
After the SBI completed its investigation, it shared its findings with the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys. The conference is handling the case at the request of the Cumberland District Attorney’s Office. David Saacks, a former prosecutor in Wake and Durham counties, was assigned as special prosecutor and given independent authority to decide what charges, if any, to pursue, wrote Kimberly Spahos, the conference’s executive director, in an email.
An interview with the woman and text messages going back to 2022 showed she dated Oxendine first, then entered a long-term relationship with Bean before later reconciling with Oxendine, according to search warrants in the case.
Text messages from 2022 and 2023 appear to indicate she and Oxendine were dating then and that he repeatedly “questioned and accused” her of being romantically involved with Bean, the search warrants state.
“I see u have been talking to Adam!!! Best Wishes!!!” Oxendine texted the woman in July 2022, one of the warrants states. “Better tell that [expletive] to get ready too!!!”
The investigation showed that the woman also texted Bean about Oxendine in 2023, asking if he was worried about the trooper.
“I’m really worried about your thoughts on marriage and children more so after last night,” Bean responded, adding that it did bother him that the trooper “continually pops up,” the warrants state.
“All I can do is keep doing what I told you I would. I want a future with you and a child. So getting the house for us is what I’m doing,” Bean later texted, the warrants state.
The woman moved out of her shared home with Bean in December 2025, about three months before the deputy was killed, the warrants state.
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Texts exchanged between the woman and Oxendine in February and March of this year show that the two had reconciled.
In the texts, Oxendine asked whether Bean was more attractive than he was, accused Bean of continuing to have influence over her, and stated that Bean had “the key to ur heart,” one of the warrants states.
The woman responded by telling Oxendine she wanted to build a future with him, but the reassurance didn’t appear to assuage his concerns, as he continued to question her commitment to their relationship, the warrants state.
Oxendine’s concerns about Bean continued through March 18, roughly a week before the shooting, as he challenged the woman about her relationship with Bean and she continued to deny lying or hiding anything, the warrant states.
Oxendine stated he didn’t want to find himself “back in the same predicament” if the woman returned to Bean, the warrant states.
Before the shooting on March 27, Bean had asked to meet with the woman at his house after work to talk, the woman told investigators.
She agreed, then changed her mind and stopped responding to his messages, one of the warrants states.
Around 10:40 p.m. the night of the shooting, Bean asked her if she was still coming and said he was waiting in the driveway to have a conversation, the warrant states.
“[Expletive], I’ll come to you,” Bean said.
“Please don’t,” the woman responded.
“Nope,” Bean responded and told the woman to come outside or that he would make a scene by blowing the horn.
The woman told police that when she went outside she saw Bean in his truck, according to the warrant.
After Oxendine came outside, Bean “exited his vehicle and moved aggressively toward Oxendine,” she told investigators, the warrant states.
Oxendine fired two warning shots into the ground, but “Bean continued advancing toward Oxendine,” she told investigators, the warrant states.
The woman heard “two or three additional gunshots” and saw Bean taking several steps backward before collapsing in the front yard, the warrant states.
At 10:52 p.m. the woman called 911.
“We just had somebody get shot,” she said.
The operator responded: “We’re going to get some help out there. We need this information so the responders can make sure everyone stays safe.”
“Everything is secure,” the woman said. “The gun is secure. It’s right here.”
The operator was persistent, asking for details five times during the phone call that lasted 1 minute and 18 seconds. The caller hung up before the operator could get answers.
Two minutes later, sheriff’s Sgt. R. Wolfe arrived at the Seattle Slew Lane address and found the woman performing CPR on Bean, who was on his back in the front yard with blood on his chest and left arm, search warrants state.
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He died in her front yard.
Portions of this story were previously published in The N&O.
This story was originally published September 9, 2026 at 1:30 PM.