A Raleigh man accused of killing an Apex teacher and girls basketball coach will remain in jail as he faces a first-degree murder charge, a judge said Friday.
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Rickey Harper, 60, appeared in court Friday, two weeks after police found his girlfriend, Sheremy Gwenette Dillard, fatally stabbed in their home on Aug. 14.
Harper was found hours later in Pennsylvania, where he was taken into custody by the Plymouth Township Police Department, The News & Observer previously reported.
Harper was placed in Wake County custody on Thursday, court records show.
The charge could yield a life sentence without parole or capital punishment under North Carolina law, Judge Brian Ratledge said during the hearing Friday. Ratledge set no bail for Harper and agreed to assign him a court-appointed attorney. His next court date will be Sept. 17.
Dillard, 57, was a recovery teacher and the head coach of the girls’ basketball team at Felton Grove High School in Apex, the school’s inaugural head coach after its opening in August 2025. She was also the head coach of the Carrboro High School girls’ basketball team when the school opened in 2007, leading the Jaguars for 17 years and winning the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference Coach of Year in 2023.
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She also coached at the collegiate level as an assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville from 1996 to 1998 and at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans from 1998 to 2000.
Dillard’s family has set up a GoFundMe to establish the “Coach Sheremy G. Dillard Scholarship Fund,” an annual award for a graduating female student at Durham’s Hillside High School, her alma mater, who plans to attend a historically Black college or university and major in physical education to pursue coaching and teaching as a career. The fund had raised $1,520 toward a $10,000 goal as of Friday afternoon.
“She was a bright light in our lives, a passionate educator, and someone who dedicated her life to inspiring others through teaching and coaching,” Sheremy Dillard’s brother Bernard wrote on the GoFundMe page.
A celebration of life is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday at Hillside High, which Dillard graduated from in 1987. The ceremony will be live-streamed on the Fisher Memorial Funeral Parlor Facebook Page.
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This story was originally published August 28, 2026 at 2:27 PM.