The Winston-Salem Journal has the story:
A Watauga County man died early Sunday after being stabbed in the shoulder and neck during an after-prom party at a home, according to the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office.
Benjamin Seth Pickett, 19, was taken to Watauga Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The 911 call came at 2:27 a.m.
When authorities arrived, they found more than 30 people at the party, most of them students from Watauga High School, including girls in formal gowns. The school had its prom on Saturday night.
Samuel Maurice King, 23, of 1381 Highland Hall, Grandview Apartments, was arrested at his home about 7:30 a.m. Sunday and charged with murder. He is being held without bond in the Watauga County jail.
King had been at the party and been asked to leave a number of times, said Capt. Dee Dee Rominger of the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office. She said that he left the party immediately after the stabbing. He did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he was arrested, she said.
Rominger said that authorities are still trying to determine why King stabbed Pickett.
“We’re still investigating that part of it,” she said yesterday. “We don’t want to guess at a motive at this point. We still have a lot of interviews to do.”
Investigators said they found alcohol and drugs at the party.
Brothers Ian Edward Ellis, 23, and Colin Stephen Ellis, 18, whose parents own the home, were arrested and each charged with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. The home is in an area where there are many second homes, but authorities are not sure if it is the family’s main home. The brothers’ parents were not at the home during the party.