Man cleared of murder charge

GASTONIA, N.C. -- Richard Mize walked out of the Gaston County jail on Monday morning a free man, after being wrongly accused of murder.

Gastonia police had accused him of murdering his friend, Royce Mathis, on June 26. Mathis was found stabbed in a wooded area on South York Road in Gastonia. Mize was arrested the following day and charged with second degree murder. He has remained in jail for the last 75 days, until the Gaston County district attorney dismissed the charges Monday morning.

"They kept all saying I did it and all this and I knew I didn't. I said I did just so they'd shut up and leave me alone," said Mize, who has now been cleared of a murder charge.

Gaston County Sheriff's Office

Richard Mize

Mize and Mathis were both homeless. Mize said he had been drinking the night of the murder and doesn't remember anything.

"I knew him for a long time, we was friends. I had no reason to kill him. I'd like to know myself, I don't even know what happened," said Mize.

District Attorney Locke Bell dismissed the charge against Mize after police met with him and said they had new evidence pointing to someone else in the case.

"My job is to do justice, and as soon as it was shown to me this man didn't do it, I got him out of jail. That's my job," said Bell.

As Mize walked out of jail, police locked up a new suspect, Jarmond Burney, 18, also from Gastonia.

Police said they interviewed him at the time of the murder, but new information has just linked him to the crime. Investigators will not comment on what that new information is.

According the arrest warrant, Burney is accused of stabbing Mathis four times in the neck with a hunting knife. He is now in the Gaston County jail charged with first degree murder and malicious assault.

Despite the fact that three months of Mize's life are gone, he isn't upset.

"I'm glad to be out. Plus, I know I didn't do it, so there's no use in being angry about it," said Mize.

He left the jail with a bag full of his only possessions, a bible, a pair of socks and a little bit of food, headed for the bus.