5 Things to Know: Judge Rejects Plea Deal in Andrew Tench Disappearance Case

Judge Rejects Plea Deal in Andrew Tench Disappearance

A man charged with concealing Andrew Tench’s body after his disappearance last year was refused a plea deal in court on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old Andrew Tench, who lived in Belmont and often went by Andy, was last seen in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 24, 2024, at The Bar at 316 in Charlotte’s Dilworth neighborhood, where he celebrated his birthday. Surveillance footage outside of the bar captured Tench leaving with a man he had met that night.

That man, 26-year-old D’shaun Robinson, has told police and Tench’s family that Tench died of a drug overdose on the night of his birthday. However, it’s unclear where his body ended up and therefore impossible to confirm a cause of death.

Robinson has confessed to placing Tench’s body in a dumpster after he passed away, but CMPD has since halted the search for Tench’s remains, refusing to greenlight the excavation of an Anson County landfill where Tench’s loved ones believe he might be.

Read more: Family of Andrew Tench Seeks Answers as Police Delay Search

Prosecutors had worked with Robinson’s attorneys to propose a deal that would see Robinson go to prison for 17 months but a judge rejected that deal on Tuesday, citing the wishes of Tench’s family and Robinson’s criminal past. If the case goes to trial, Robinson faces nearly 10 years in prison.

“Thank you God Andy got a little bit of justice today!” wrote Tench’s mom, Tracii Blanton, in a post Tuesday on the Find Andy Tench Facebook page.

However, the family was informed Wednesday that prosecutors plan to bring the same plea deal in front of another judge in hopes of having it approved.

In a statement sent to Queen City Nerve, the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office wrote, “The State intends to recalendar the case for consideration by another judge to consider the facts of this case. As it is pending, the State is prohibited from further comment.”

Tornado Confirmed Near Union County High School

The National Weather Service (NWS) says a possible EF-1 tornado touched down in Union County during a string of severe storms that passed through the area Wednesday morning. The path of the tornado as logged by NWS began at Porter Ridge High School, where children were in class on Wednesday morning, and tracked northeast to Lawyers Road. No one was injured in the storm.

NWS officials believe the tornado touched down at approximately 8:34 a.m., just 24 minutes after classes began, with peak winds of 90 mph, making it an EF-1 tornado. Estimated to be 75 yards wide, the tornado traced a path 2.24 miles long and was on the ground for approximately three minutes.

The storm caused damage to several structures in the area of Friendly Baptist Church and Ridge Road, Union County officials said, leaving about 1,000 people in the area without power and fallen trees throughout the area. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools canceled school for Wednesday due to the high winds forecasted for Wednesday morning, though Union County Public Schools decided to open schools on a normal schedule.

Joyce Waddell Makes ‘Transformative’ Donation to Library Campaign

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation (CMLF) on Friday announced a large donation from NC Sen. Joyce Waddell, representative for District 40 in Mecklenburg County, to the foundation’s CommonSpark campaign, a public-private partnership that aims to infuse $165 million into community efforts by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, including the construction of its new Main Library branch in Uptown.

Without releasing the amount of the donation, a Friday release from CMLF called it “transformative.”

The event space located on the fifth floor of the new Main Library will be named the Dr. Joyce Davis Waddell Event Space in recognition of the donation. The space will serve as a venue for community engagement, educational programming and cultural events, accommodating upward of 300 guests, according to the release.

Waddell is a former librarian and educator, having spent 21 years working in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

“I am honored to be a part of the growth of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and to help create educational opportunities for the people they serve,” Waddell wrote in a statement. “Mecklenburg County is my home, and my family, friends, neighbors and I all benefit from a strong public library system. I’ve been devoted to my community for decades. I know how important it is to build spaces and offer ways to engage and learn together. When we support each other and lift each other up, we all grow stronger together.”

Located at the corner of East 6th and North Tryon streets where the previous library stood until it was demolished in 2023, the new Main Library will feature five above-ground levels that will wrap around the former First Baptist Church building that houses McGlohon Theater. Read more about what each floor will include in our reporting this week on the upcoming opening of the nearby Carolina Theatre.

DOGE Cuts Hit Charlotte

The federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Wednesday announced the cancellation of leases for two federal offices in Charlotte housing employees of the Environmental Protection Agency and US Geological Survey. It’s unclear if firings will follow, affecting the people who work in these buildings.

The DOGE website claims the agency saved around $146,000 with the Charlotte cuts, though those claims come on the heels of New York Times reporting this week that Elon Musk’s government overhaul effort had to revise its “wall of receipts” for the second time in a week to remove mistakes that inflated its success.

In addition, the Associated Press reported in late February that nearly 40% of the federal contracts DOGE had terminated aren’t expected to save the government any money.

Two Women, One Man Killed Over Violent Weekend

CMPD has released the names of two of the three people killed in separate incidents of gun violence across west Charlotte on a single day last weekend.

It started in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 1, when police responded to a 2 a.m. shooting call at the newly opened Flirt Night Club on Wilkinson Boulevard near Billy Graham Parkway and found 31-year-old Todd Jackson Jr. suffering from a gunshot wound. Medic transported Jackson to Atrium Main, where he was later pronounced dead.

Witnesses said Jackson got into an altercation with a security guard at the venue, which led to the shooting. No arrests have been made in the case at the time of this writing.

In the above map tracking last year’s homicide total, black markers signify deaths by gun violence, green markers signify killings that may be deemed justified, red markers signify stabbings, yellow markers signify murder by vehicle, purple markers signify deaths by trauma or unknown cause, and blue markers signify police killings.

Then shortly after 11 a.m. the same day, police responded to assist Medic on a call on Old Mount Holly Road near the Todd Park neighborhood and found a woman suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to her chest. She later succumbed to her injury. No further details are known about the incident or victim at the time of this writing.

At around 9 p.m. that night, police responded to a shooting call near a hotel on Lucky Penny Street in the Thomasboro-Hopkins area, where they found 28-year-old Summer Massey dead from a gunshot wound. No arrests have been announced related to any of the above incidents at the time of this writing.

The killings make a total of 14 homicides recorded in Charlotte thus far in 2025 compared to 23 at the same point in time last year.