DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — A judge held a Triad man on a $3.5 million bond Monday, stating his charges could be upgraded if any of the victims die.
Deputies said 39-year-old Zackary Lee Plowman was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly shooting three people and kidnapping a pastor and his wife in Lexington.
We also learned new details about Plowman's past. Court documents show he spent more than a decade in prison for a Forsyth County murder — so we went to dig up more information about him and combed through some of Plowman's history.
His crimes date back to at least 2004, nearly 20 years ago. Plowman was convicted of second-degree murder in Forsyth County in 2007. From there, he was sentenced to 15 to 19 years in prison.
However, he served his time and Investigators said he committed several other crimes, related to breaking and entering, and drug possession.
At the time of the crimes, over the weekend, Plowman was out on pre-trial release for one of those recent charges.
WFMY News 2 had a lot of questions about this situation so WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman reached out to a local criminal defense lawyer, Jason Keith of Keith Law & Associates.
Keith said even if criminals complete their sentence behind bars, no one truly knows who will be a repeat offender, "you don't know what a person is willing or able to do while they're awaiting trial and the purpose of imprisonment is to rehabilitate individuals. Once that individual was convicted in 2007, served their time and was properly paroled, the assumption is that that person has been rehabilitated."
In the court documents we gathered, there are more than 30 charges under Plowman's name, many ended with guilty verdicts. Several other charges were dismissed by the Forsyth County district attorney.
One lingering question we have Monday night is why was Plowman out on pre-trial release in the first place as he was already out on parole when police arrested him for additional crimes.
WFMY News 2 will keep pressing for answers.
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RELATED: Crime Spree | Suspect accused of triple shooting in Lexington, then kidnapping pastor and wife
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