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Anthony Pierce was convicted of second-degree murder after Wilmington police officer Richard J. Matthews, 28, was killed early on Feb. 18, 2009, when his patrol car ran off Shipyard Boulevard and struck a tree while he raced to back up a chase across town.

The pursuit began when Cpl. Will Richards tried to stop a GMC Yukon on South College Road because it resembled a vehicle sought in an attempted kidnapping, the N.C. Court of Appeals wrote. The Yukon pulled over briefly, then accelerated away near College Road and Oleander Drive. Five one-pound bags of marijuana were thrown from the vehicle as it fled.

Matthews was the closest officer to Richards and drove to assist him, Deputy Chief David Conklin said. Video from Matthews' patrol car showed a small white box in the center lane of Shipyard Boulevard. He swerved left, clipped it and went into the median. Officer Allison Jahreis, following at a distance, found his cruiser wedged in trees and radioed for medical help, saying "I need EMS" before trying to pull him from the car. Matthews was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.

The Yukon stopped a short time later and three men were arrested. The driver, Anthony Pierce, then 40 and a convicted felon on parole, was charged with felony fleeing to elude arrest. Matthew Gerard Hendy, 26, and Eric Grant Smith, 25, faced marijuana charges. Evidence at trial put Matthews at 105 mph on a road posted for 50 mph. The appeals court later wrote that he was two to three miles from the chase when he crashed.

A New Hanover County grand jury indicted Pierce on a charge of second-degree murder in March 2009. On May 6, 2010, jurors convicted him of second-degree murder, felony fleeing to elude arrest causing death, possession of marijuana with intent to sell and deliver, and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Resident Superior Court Judge Phyllis Gorham sentenced him to up to 20 years, with concurrent terms on the other counts. "This case sends a strong message that you can't run from the police, and if you do, you have to live with the consequences," District Attorney Ben David said. Legal scholars described the verdict as the first in North Carolina against a defendant for the murder of an officer who was not directly involved in a chase.

The N.C. Court of Appeals upheld the murder conviction in a unanimous ruling on Oct. 18, 2011, finding that Pierce received a trial "free of prejudicial error." The panel reversed one of the two firearm counts, concluding that a handgun found along the chase route more likely belonged to one of his passengers. Prosecutors said the ruling did not shorten his 20-year sentence because the terms ran concurrently. The decision drew criticism from some legal scholars, including N.C. Central University law professor Irving Joyner, who said he was shocked by the opinion.

Matthews, a native of Bethlehem, Pa., joined the Wilmington department in December 2006 after patrolling Brooklyn for the New York City Police Department. He wore badge 427. Two weeks before he died he was commended for helping rescue residents from a burning condominium building, carrying a 96-year-old woman to safety.

The recording attached here is the Wilmington police dispatch channel logging tape from that night, running about 10 and a half minutes. It carries the original traffic stop, an officer's call for an ambulance after the crash, and the response that followed. A logging tape records everything broadcast on the frequency, so routine radio traffic having nothing to do with the pursuit runs alongside the incident. Long silent stretches have been edited out of this copy. The city released the radio traffic and seven DVDs of patrol car video in the weeks after the crash, after the Wilmington Star-News sued the city, the county and the police department for the records.