The charges filed by the Halifax County Sheriff's Office against Rodney Joyner, 18, stem from an investigation into a burglary that occurred four days before Cotton's murder, Detective Obert Wiltsie said today.

In that burglary the victim confronted Joyner, who allegedly used a chair as a weapon to beat the victim in the face and back.

Wiltsie declined to comment on motive in the September 20 case, only to say it was burglary. The victim was treated and released from injuries sustained in the assault, which occurred around 3 a.m. in the Highway 158 area of Roanoke Rapids.

Joyner, who remains in jail in Halifax, was served warrants last week for burglary, trespass and assault with a deadly weapon, Wiltsie said in a statement. He received a $20,000 bond for those charges.

Joyner was the first person to be arrested in the Cotton murder and faces charges of one count of first-degree murder, one count of robbery with a dangerous weapon, one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of felony conspiracy and one count of going armed to the terror of the public.

Roanoke Rapids investigators have declined comment on whether the charge of going armed to the terror of the public means Joyner was one of the alleged triggermen in the murder of Cotton and the shooting of Richard Squire Jr. that afternoon. Squire is recovering from the injuries he sustained in the shooting.

Meanwhile, Roanoke Rapids Police Chief Andy Jackson said investigators are still looking for the seventh person in the case, who faces the same charges as Joyner.