Left: North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nekime Matu Oxendine (NCHSP). Right: Cumberland County Sheriff’s Capt. Adam Bean (CCSO).
A jury in North Carolina indicted a state trooper for the shooting death of a sheriff’s deputy as part of a yearslong love triangle with a woman both men had dated.
North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nekime Matu Oxendine, 44, stands accused of first-degree murder in the death of Cumberland County Sheriff’s Capt. Adam Bean, 42, in Hope Mills.
The shooting occurred shortly before 11 p.m. March 27 outside the woman’s home in the 1600 block of Seattle Slew Lane. Cops arrived at the home to find the woman performing CPR on Bean, who was suffering from gunshot wounds. Paramedics pronounced Bean dead. Oxendine remained at the scene and cops recovered the gun used in the shooting.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation handled the case. The 43-year-old woman told them she been in long-term relationships with both men, a probable cause statement said. First, she dated Oxendine before she left him for Bean. She lived with Bean until she broke it off in December 2025, and went back to Oxendine.
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She said Bean had texted her on the night in question and wanted to talk, but she declined, saying she was already in bed for the night.
“F— it, I’ll come to you,” Bean allegedly texted her.
“Please don’t,” she responded.
Bean showed up anyway, cops say, and said he’d make a scene by blowing his horn if she didn’t come outside.
The woman obliged and went out to meet him.
Bean “appeared irate and questioned why Oxendine’s vehicle was parked outside” the home, she told cops, per the complaint. At some point, Oxendine came out of the home and Bean moved “aggressively” toward his rival, cops wrote.
Oxendine allegedly fired two “warning shots” at the ground but Bean continued walking toward him, the affidavit stated. The suspect allegedly fired two or three shots at Bean, causing the deputy to stumble back and collapse on the ground.
Text messages dating back years showed jealousy had festered between the men while they dated the woman, per the complaint.
In 2022, when the defendant was first with the woman, he “repeatedly questioned and accused” her of being “romantically involved” with Bean.
“I seen u have been talking to Adam!!! Best wishes!!!” he allegedly texted. “Better tell that Mother F—er to get ready too!!!”
Bean also was suspicious of Oxendine when they were together.
“Are you worried about nick?” the woman texted Bean in January 2023, an apparent reference to Oxendine.
“I’m really worried about your thoughts on marriage and children more so after last night,” Bean replied. “Nick? No not really but it bothers me that he continually pops up.”
Bean later said: “All can do is keep doing what told you would. I want future with you and a child. So getting the house for us is what I’m doing. I cannot control anything other than myself and my actions.”
The pair did end up moving in together until their separation about four months before the slaying.
After the woman got back together with Oxendine, the trooper continued to see his law enforcement rival as a threat, cops said. Oxendine asked her if she thought Bean was “more attractive than he was,” cops wrote. He said Bean was “the key to ur heart,” according to the complaint.
“He can lure u in and out of my life on demand!” Oxendine allegedly fumed. “That’s the Man u miss! No matter how u much tell urself no! He led u to betray me once and has the power to do it again! If he didn’t, u would have been stopped all of this immediately!”
The woman insisted that she was committed to Oxendine but he continued to doubt it, writing in a text message about a week before he allegedly shot Bean dead that he did not want to end up “back in the same predicament.”
He requested that she delete all text messages she received from Bean, which she did — including from after the shooting, cops said.
Oxendine was placed on “administrative duty” after the shooting.
“The North Carolina State Highway Patrol understands that Sgt. Nekime M. Oxendine has been criminally charged,” the Highway Patrol said in a statement to local ABC affiliate WTVD. “The Patrol respects the integrity of the judicial process and our system of laws that we all hold dear. This is a difficult and tragic event for all involved. While this criminal investigation has moved forward, the Patrol has been conducting a separate internal investigation. That investigation is continuing, and Sgt. Oxendine remains on administrative duty pending the outcome of the internal investigation. The Patrol has no further comment.”
The defendant is in jail without bond. His next court date is set for Nov. 4.
The post Sheriff’s deputy who tried to reconcile relationship with ex-girlfriend shot dead by trooper who swooped in after breakup: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.
