A Linwood man will spend life in prison without the option of parole after the N.C. Court of Appeals upheld a first-degree murder conviction.  

On January 6, 2017, Matthew Benner shot and killed Damon Christopher Dry on Snider Kines Road in Linwood. In October 2018, a Davidson County jury convicted Benner on felony charges of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon.  

Benner appealed the judgment, saying that the jury wasn't given adequate instruction. As "'[t]he lawful occupant of [his] home,’ [Defendant] was ‘presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself’ when Dry attacked him," according to court documents.  

The Court of Appeals heard the case on April 1, 2020, and said that Benner hadn't requested that instruction. The court ruled in March 2021 that the Davidson County Superior Court hadn't made a mistake in not giving the jury these instructions.