Grand jury declines charges after Ashe man dies while in custody during traffic stop
By: West Jefferson, NC - Watauga District Attorney Seth Banks has announced that an Ashe County grand jury has declined to issue an indictment against any deputies in the death of Stuart C. Mast last September.
Watauga County District Attorney Seth Banks — whose office was assigned to review of the case — said that after reviewing the investigative file from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and Dr. J.L. McLemore's autopsy report, the case was submitted to an Ashe County Grand Jury on April 28. After hearing testimony and reviewing evidence, the grand jury declined to issue an indictment in this case.
District Attorney Banks has requested that the SBI close their file and did not provide further information on the case.
Body cam footage from three Ashe County Sheriff’s Office deputies was released to the Ashe Post & Times on May 2. Both the APT editor and Mountain Times Publications executive editor reviewed all three videos released in their entirety — totaling more than 35 minutes, with the longest video being 17 minutes and 15 seconds.
The video published is a shorter version that was stopped when deputies began lifesaving measures, including administering Narcan and starting CPR. The altercation begins around the 1 minute and 30 second mark.
Deputies can be seen pulling Mast to the ground quickly after he stopped, and struggling with him as they attempted to handcuff him.
In one part of the video, a deputy can be seen accepting a phone call and stating to the person on the other end that he had observed Mast coming in off 16 South and that he knew he'd "been involved in the drug trafficking stuff." The deputy can be heard telling the person on the other end what happened and that he believed he was deceased.
The footage ends after Ashe Medics arrived on the scene.
The autopsy report from the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which was released on March 3, ruled the death a homicide and found the cause to be “compression asphyxia of the torso and neck.”
The report also concluded that “the cause of asphyxia in this death is multifactorial, and the death was complicated by the methamphetamine and the pre-existing heart disease; however, the death occurred during a physical altercation with other(s). The manner of death, therefore, is classified as homicide.”
According to details from the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office following the incident, at approximately 12:49 a.m. on Sept. 13, 2024, deputies from the Ashe County Sheriff’s Office attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a black motorcycle.
According to the ACSO, Mast initially refused to stop. However, he eventually came to a stop on the road on NC Highway 88 between Frank Dillard Road and Sheets Bridge.
According to a news release from the ACSO in September, deputies instructed Mast to dismount the motorcycle and lie on the ground. Despite multiple verbal commands, Mast refused to comply, leading to a physical confrontation. After a short ground struggle, Mast was placed in handcuffs, where officers noticed that he was unconscious. Deputies began immediate lifesaving measures, including the administration of two doses of Narcan, followed by CPR, the use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), and resumed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Mast was pronounced dead at Ashe Memorial Hospital.