Granite Falls Man Gets 50 Years In Prison For Double Murder

27-year old Eric Terril Yount of Granite Falls will serve at least 50 years in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday to the murders of Richelle Scott Lail and Cody William Watts. Lail was 22 at the time of her death in 2016. Watts was 28.

Yount pleaded guilty to shooting Lail and Watts at the McDonald’s restaurant on U.S. 321 in Hickory in March 2016. Lail and Watts were employees at the retaurant. They were sitting Iin a truck in the restaurant parking lot when they were hit by an SUV. Yount was driving the vehicle.

Lail confronted Yount. During the argument, Yount was accused of shooting and killing Lail and then firing the gun at Watts’ truck and fatally injuring him. Yount surrendered to Lenoir Police three hours after the shooting.

Photo: Hickory Police Department