NBA star Chris Paul spent the first few moments of his appearance Tuesday night at Wake Forest University talking about his late grandfather, Nathaniel Jones.
He called Jones his “road dog,” the person he turned to for advice, the one who taught him the value of hard work and was at his side when the West Forsyth High School basketball standout signed to play the game at Wake Forest University in 2002.
The next day, Winston-Salem police officers found Paul’s 61-year-old grandfather dead from a brutal attack in the carport of his East Winston-Salem home. Just as he was blossoming into young adulthood, Paul suffered one of life’s toughest blows—the loss of his best friend.
“My granddad always had my back,” he told the audience at the Face-to-Face Speaker Forum, held in Joel Coliseum, the same place where he played 79 games in two seasons with the Demon Deacons and where he proposed to his wife, Jada. (Paul replaced Magic Johnson as speaker for the kickoff event for Wake Forest’s speaker series’ fifth season; Johnson had to drop out due to an emergency.)
But in an hour-long conversation with CBS sports reporter Tracy Wolfson, Paul didn’t talk about the recent, consequential development in his grandfather’s murder. On August 8, Superior Court Judge Robert Broadie exonerated the five men convicted as teenagers in Jones’ death—-Nathaniel Cauthen, Rayshawn Banner, Christopher Bryant, Jermal Tolliver, and the late Dorrell Brayboy. (Paul did not grant a request for an interview for this story.)
Paul and his family have remained resolutely silent in the face of the stunning reversal. The decision overturns a narrative they had clung to for the past 20-plus years—that Jones’ murderers were caught, sentenced, and punished for the crime. In his 2023 memoir, Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court, Paul said he still believed the men were guilty, but was conflicted about their lengthy sentences. His family has also said they believe the men committed the crime.
The five men, though, claimed from the beginning that Winston-Salem police officers coerced them into making false confessions when they were still teenagers. No definitive physical evidence tied them to the crime scene, and their statements were inconsistent with the physical evidence police did seize.
In the last several years, new questions have been raised, particularly after key witness Jessicah Black recanted. At a hearing in January, Black testified that police coerced her into making false statements. She said she was a terrified 16-year-old who believed officers when they told her that Jones’ blood was in her car. That wasn’t true. She also believed the officers when they told her if she didn’t cooperate, she would face a possible life sentence as an accessory to murder.
Broadie specifically cited Black’s recantation in his ruling, saying it was credible and significant. If Black had not testified falsely two decades ago, “a different result would have been reached in the defendants’ trials,” he wrote.
The ruling sparked fierce opposition from Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, whose office immediately and unsuccessfully sought a stay of Broadie’s order within hours of it being issued. O’Neill then worked with N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson to ask the state Court of Appeals to issue a temporary stay, which it did.
The stay has prevented Cauthen and Banner, who are serving life sentences, from being released. Bryant and Tolliver have already completed their sentences; Brayboy was murdered a year after leaving prison.
State prosecutors filed a motion seeking to have Cauthen and Banner remain in prison for the duration of the appeal process, which could take up to two years.
The court said it would rule on the state’s motion once the men’s defense counsel filed a written response. That was done on August 14. The court has yet to issue a decision.
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