A jury has found Ricky Dean Norman guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the collision that killed Harley Carter, 82, and his wife, Helen Luffman Carter, 73 of Elkin on March 26, 2007 in the State Road community on U.S. Hwy 21.

The jury deliberated for about two hours Tuesday in Wilkes Superior Court. Norman was also found guilty of driving while impaired, exceeding a safe speed and failure to reduce speed.

The sentencing hearing in the case began in the afternoon session, but no official verification could be obtained at press time on the actual sentence. Calls to both the district attorney's office and Norman's attorney were not returned.

Norman, 55, was driving a truck traveling south on Old U.S. 21, when he collided with a car driven by Harley Carter as Carter tried to pull out from Pleasant Ridge Road. Norman's vehicle struck the Carters' vehicle on the driver's side.

The Carters suffered severe head and chest trauma and died at the scene.

Norman was reported to have broken two ribs, have a collapsed lung, a broken pelvis, a broken sternum, two broken bones in his left arm and a broken right heel. Norman was taken to Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin following the accident, then transferred by helicopter to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Norman had previously been convicted of driving while impaired three times, with a fourth DWI charge pending at the time of the accident according to prosecutors.

Allegations that Norman also had cocaine in his system at the time of the wreck were also made, but Norman's attorney, Jay Vannoy, argued that he was not impaired and the alcohol and drugs did not cause the wreck.

Vannoy told jurors that Norman was driving faster than the posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour, an estimated 15 miles per hour over, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, and that although he did have cocaine in his system, the level was not enough to impair his ability to maintain a vehicle.

He also told jurors that the State Bureau of Investigation showed Norman's blood alcohol to be at 0.03, way below the legal limit of 0.08.

Norman's blood was not tested until approximately two hours after the wreck.

A prosecution witness told jurors the body burns through alcohol after it's consumed at a 'fairly predictable' rate, and with the time between the blood sample and the accident, Norman's blood alcohol could be estimated to have been between 0.05 and 0.09 at the time of the accident

Vannoy argued that the real cause of the accident was Carter's failure to stop at the stop sign, putting him in the lane of Norman's travel.

Accident reconstruction expert Chuck Olive of the North Carolina Highway Patrol testified that if Norman would have been traveling at the posted 45 mile per hour speed limit, he could have steered or braked in time to either miss hitting the Carters' car or would have struck it in the rear.

An accident reconstruction expert for the defense, Andrew Webb, told jurors that the view of Carter's car was obstructed by a vehicle traveling north and turning left in front of Norman from U.S. Hwy. 21 onto Pleasant Ridge Road.

The Carters were longtime residents of the area and 'loved living here' according to Glenda Watson, the Carter's eldest child.