Man, 43, jailed on first-degree murder charge

A man with a prior history of violence is behind bars without bond in the Edgecombe County Detention Center after Rocky Mount police charged him with committing first-degree murder Sunday.

Scottie Jeffries, 43, was arrested after an investigation of a report of an unconscious female in the 300 block of Marigold Street just on the east side of downtown, police said.

Investigators described the incident as a domestic violence-related homicide, and Jeffries was taken into custody at the scene, police said.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical services personnel, police said, and her name is being withheld pending the notification of her family.

N.C. Public Safety records state that Jeffries was convicted in Wake County in 2018 for felony habitual misdemeanor assault and in 2011 for misdemeanor assault on a female and misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon with a minor present, in addition to other convictions including misdemeanor communicating threats.