Former NC police officer sentenced to nearly 8 years for shooting death of motorcyclist
A former police officer in Catawba County will spend less than eight years in prison for second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old motorcyclist in June of 2025.
Former Newton Police Lt. Carlos Uribe, left, walks into court on Wednesday with supporters.
Carlos Alverto Uribe, a former lieutenant with the Newton Police Department, shot 21-year-old Camden Skyler Childers in the chest after kicking him to the ground following multiple police chases with Childers’ motorcycle on June 27, 2025. Childers was not armed at the time.
Uribe was indicted on second-degree murder charges on July 21, 2025. He pleaded guilty to the charge in Catawba County Superior Court on June 9. As part of the plea arrangement, sentencing for Uribe’s crime was left up to a Superior Court judge’s decision.
During court, Judge Edith F. Brooks sentenced Uribe to a minimum of seven years and 10 months in prison. The maximum for the sentence was 10 years and five months.
Brooks made the sentencing decision after watching body camera footage, hearing arguments from lawyers and listening to testimony from expert witnesses and statements from Childers’ family. The hearing started Sept. 8 and concluded midday Sept. 9.
In body camera footage, Camden Childers holds up his hands as he is approached by Carlos Uribe on June 27, 2025.
Childers, of Stanley, North Carolina, led police on three separate chases in Catawba County and at least one chase in Lincoln County on the night of June 26, 2025, leading into the early morning hours of June 27, 2025. The final chase began in Newton and ended on a cul-de-sac in Conover near the Walmart off N.C. Highway 16.
Officers cornered Childers on Northern Drive Northeast. Dash camera video showed Uribe hit Childers' motorcycle with his vehicle when the chase ended. In the dash camera video and body camera video shown in court, Uribe got out of his vehicle with his weapon drawn.
As Uribe exited his patrol vehicle, he said, “You done f****d up, a**hole. Get on the f*****g ground.” Childers had his hands up to surrender and was apologizing, the video showed. Uribe approached Childers, then kicked Childers to the ground. Childers' hands were behind him as he fell.
Childers was shot in the chest while on the ground. His hands were still behind his back when he was shot. Childers could be heard in the body camera video screaming that he had been shot.
In a dashboard camera video, Carlos Uribe points his firearm at 21-year-old Camden Childers while Childers has his hands in the air.
From the moment Uribe left his vehicle to the moment Childers was shot was about five seconds.
“(The videos are) heartbreaking, to see my child with his hands up saying he’s sorry, he’s sorry, he’s sorry,” Childers' mother, Melissa Childers, said. “To receive a kick to the stomach and then a gunshot, it just breaks my heart. It disgusts me."
Childers' family members muffled their sobs as they watched Childers’ final moments play across a large flatscreen TV in Courtroom 7 of the Catawba County Justice Center on Sept. 8.
Uribe spoke to the family in court. While talking, Uribe took a long pause to wipe away tears while defense attorney Michael Neese comforted him.
“I would like to start by telling the family how there's not a day that goes by that I wish this would have never happened,” Uribe said. “Trust me, I do take this with me every day as well, and I know that there's nothing I can say or do that will make them whole again. But I want them to know that I am sorry, and that's part of the reason that I pled guilty.”
Camden Childers' grandmother, Brenda Moody, left, and his mother, Melissa Childers, right, flip through a photo album and reminisce about Camden Childers' life.
Melissa Childers said she cannot accept Uribe’s apology while she continues to grieve the death of her oldest son.
Uribe was led out of the courtroom by Catawba County Sheriff’s Office bailiffs. Uribe’s family was hugging and loudly crying as Uribe was escorted away.
Family speaks of grief
Six of Childers’ family members, including his mother and his girlfriend, spoke in court. Childers' family and friends filled all the benches on the right side of the courtroom.
Melissa Childers said it was heart breaking to watch the videos of her 21-year-old son Camden Childers being shot by former Newton Police Lt. …
Childers' girlfriend, Lillianna Leonard, was unable to speak through her tears. She wrote a letter describing the life she imagined with Childers, including having children and growing old together. An attorney read the letter for her as she wiped away her tears.
“The murder didn't just take Camden from this world, it took birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and the life we were supposed to live together,” Leonard’s letter said. “It took the chance for our future children to know the man who would have loved them fiercely. It took the comfort of knowing I would grow old with the person I love. I carry this loss every day. I carry the silence where his voice should be, the emptiness where his presence should be, the heartbreak of loving someone I can no longer call, hold or come home to.”
Camden Childers' girlfriend Lillianna Leonard cries as her victim impact letter is read aloud during a sentencing hearing for Carlos Uribe.
Expert witness testimonies
The defense argued for extraordinary mitigation, which could have allowed Uribe to receive probation for the charge. Judge Brooks did not agree that there were extraordinary mitigating factors in the case.
One of the defense’s expert witnesses was Campbell University Health Educator John Combs. Combs testified as an expert in law enforcement training.
Combs said that, in his opinion, Uribe followed common law enforcement training. Combs said it is typical for a police officer to exit a vehicle with their weapon drawn and if a threat is perceived, the officer may have their finger on the trigger of the gun, as Uribe did on the night of June 27, 2025.
Uribe was a firearms instructor and a member of the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office Special Tactics and Response team.
Brooks has 30 years of experience as a judge and a prosecutor and spent 20 years in the U.S. Army Reserve. Brooks said she has received firearms training and said the first rule of firearms is to keep your finger off the trigger.
The second expert witness to testify was Moira Artigues, a licensed general and forensic psychiatrist who evaluated Uribe about a month after the shooting. Artigues also reviewed Uribe's interview with SBI.
Uribe initially told an SBI agent that Childers was above him and reaching for Uribe’s gun when he was shot. Uribe also claimed Childers grabbed his leg and pulled him to the ground. The footage showed that both of those claims were not true.
Camden Childers
“That's not what happened, and he's (Uribe’s) aware that that's not what happened,” Artigues said. “But it appeared to me that his brain filled in the blanks to make a story that made sense to him.”
Artigues said she believed Uribe was telling what he believed happened because extreme stress can distort memories. Artigues said people also bring their own past experiences into stressful experiences, which can alter memories.
Artigues said Uribe told her that during the chase with Childers he was thinking about another motorcycle police chase that happened shortly before, in which an uninvolved mother and son were killed in Hickory. Uribe also mentioned being present at other officer-involved shootings that happened in Catawba County the year before the shooting of Childers.
Artigues said Uribe suffered from PTSD from his service in the U.S. Army. Catawba County Assistant District Attorney Kyle Smith asked what the traumatic stressor was related to Uribe’s service that caused Uribe to develop PTSD. Artigues said Uribe told her that a Moldavian soldier threw a mortar at Uribe’s feet, but it did not explode.
Artigues spoke about some of the vulgar statements Uribe made while confronting Childers before and after the shot was fired.
“In my opinion, Mr. Uribe's statement was influenced by extreme stress,” Artigues said.
Smith said Uribe should have known if he couldn't handle the situation.
“(Uribe) knew in advance, according to his own experts, that he suffered from PTSD. Was even taking medication for PTSD,” Smith said. “Would be aware of what a quote-unquote trigger event may have been. He should have stepped aside and let somebody else finish what had started at that point in time if he couldn't handle. And that would also beg the question: If he has this to such a degree, why is he in law enforcement to start off?”
Uribe and the city of Newton are still facing a lawsuit filed by Childers’ mother on Nov. 18, 2025. The most recent update in the civil case is a certified mediator who was appointed on Aug. 25. The lawsuit has not been resolved as of Sept. 9.
Carlos Uribe was sentenced to prison for second-degree murder in the 2025 officer-involved shooting death of 21-year-old Camden Childers.
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Sarah Johnson is the courts and breaking news reporter for the Hickory Daily Record.
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