GASTONIA, N.C.-- A man suspected in the murders of two Gaston County women, killed just weeks apart, will make his first appearance in court Monday.
Danny Hembree Jr, 47, will appear in Gaston County court at 2 p.m. It’s a routine he’s familiar with, because he’s been through the courts more than a dozen times before.
"He's been in and out of prison for robberies and burglaries and several other crimes of that nature," said Capt. JD Ramey of Gaston County Police, when he announced Hembree’s arrest.
NewsChannel 36 dug through Hembree’s prison records in North and South Carolina. Hembree’s first recorded brush with the law was in 1979, when he was just 17-years-old.
Eight years later, records show Hembree was convicted of Driving While Impaired in North Carolina – and then convicted again of the same thing two years later.
The crimes get more serious from there – forgery, burglary, armed robbery, auto theft, and more than a dozen others that kept him behind bars for years.
He tried escaping from prison twice – once in 1998, while serving 11 years for robbery in York County, and again while on work-release in Pineville in 2007. Both times he was caught within days.
Gaston County police said Hembree was last released from prison in January, and had been living in Gaston County about four months before the murders.
The murders are the most serious charges he’s faced so far.
Hembree is charged with murdering Heather Catterton, 17, and her friend Randi Dean Saldana, 30. Catterton’s body was found in a remote area near Clover, South Carolina, in October. Saldana’s body was found burned off a dirt road in Kings Mountain State Park in November.
Police said the women were murdered in Gaston County.
Hembree was dating Catterton’s sister. Police wouldn’t elaborate on the relationship between the suspect and the two women, or a motive for the crime, other than to say, “they ran in the same circles.”
And it was three more robberies this week – two hotels and an iHop restaurant – that helped detectives track Hembree down.
Police said while talking to Hembree about the robberies, they obtained evidence that led to the murder charges.
Hembree had told a neighbor police suspected him in Catterton’s death.
"I asked Danny about it,” said Richard Owens. “And he said they were trying to pin it on him.. but he didn't know about it."
Hembree is currently in the Gaston County Jail without bond. In addition to his first appearance for murder charges, he is scheduled to appear in court Friday in Mecklenburg County on a charge for one of the hotel robberies.
Police said more charges are expected this week.
