No Death Penalty in North Carolina Insurance Murder

An insurance agency owner charged with killing a North Carolina Department of Insurance investigator won’t face the death penalty, prosecutors said.

The decision was revealed during a court hearing for Michael Howell, who is charged with murder in the May slaying of Sallie Rohrbach.

The victim’s husband, Tim Rohrbach, said prosecutors told him they believe Howell probably snapped and they would have trouble proving “the murder was premeditated.”

At first, Rohrbach said he wanted prosecutors to seek the death penalty. But after learning more about Howell, he’s not so sure anymore. He believes Howell didn’t plan to kill his wife. “The thing that convinced me was that he had no prior record, no prior history of doing anything wrong and that kind of tells me that he did just snap,” he said.

Rohrbach was reported missing two days after arriving in Charlotte from Raleigh to investigate Howell’s Dilworth Insurance Agency. Rohrbach’s body was found several days later in a remote wooded area near Fort Mill, S.C.