National Outlet Highlights North Carolina Teacher Allegedly Murdered By Former Convict Who Was Released By Cooper Appointed Judge
Today, Fox News reported on a story of renewed criticism over former Governor Roy Cooper’s connection to the murder of a Raleigh teacher last January. Cooper is the Democrat nominee for the U.S. Senate in the North Carolina contest. This will likely be one of the most expensive and competitive Senate contests in the 2026 midterm.
Raleigh teacher, Zoe Welch, was found dead in her home January 2026, and the autopsy showed that she died from blunt force trauma to the head. Her accused murderer, Ryan Camacho, was facing several charges for breaking in and entering in April 2025. Despite 20 prior arrests, Durham District Court Judge Dorthy Mairston Mitchelle reduced his charges to a misdemeanor, allowing to walk free ahead of the murder.
The Durham Judge was appointed by Cooper in 2021 and was later reelected to the position. In North Carolina, traditionally, Democrat governors have appointed liberal judges who often face no serious opposition in the upcoming judicial elections.
"Roy Cooper is a soft-on-crime lunatic who lets monsters out of prison instead of fighting to keep North Carolinians safe," Republican National Committee Spokesperson Emma Hall said. "Cooper’s record has deadly consequences, and he owes every victim and their family an apology for his failure to keep dangerous criminals off the streets.”
This is but the latest example of consequences of Cooper’s soft-on-crime agenda while in office. Here are some other examples of Cooper’s dangerous agenda.
Cooper’s administration signed a settlement agreement with his liberal allies promising to limit the spread of COVID-19. In reality, Cooper was in danger of letting a crisis go to waster to accomplish a progressive policy objective under the political cover of the pandemic. In reality, the vaccine was being widely distributed and there was not significant difference between inflection rates in prisons and the general population, effectively eliminating the key arguments from the lawsuit. Recent reporting shows that almost half of those individuals went onto reoffend, including over 80 charged with sex crimes, and 18 with murder.
He commuted the sentences of 15 convicted killers, enraging victims’ families. And he launched the “Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice” to “reimagine public safety,” which pushed for cashless bail and pretrial release
