The North Carolina Court of Appeals has reached a split decision in an appeal of a 2018 murder conviction in which a jury found Khalil Abdul Farook guilty of two counts of second-degree murder.

The court ruled against Farook in his assertion that he was denied a speedy trial but it did agree that Farook’s attorney may not have acted in his best interests.

In June of 2012, Farook was arrested and charged the day after he hit a motorcycle while driving drunk, with a suspended license, killing Tommy Jones, 47, and Suzette Jones, 48.

Farook had initially run from the scene, but did turn himself in the next day. He was initially charged with DWI and two counts of felony death by motor vehicle. The charges of second-degree murder were not added until 2017, a year before the trial.

In total, the jury convicted Farook of two counts of felony second-degree murder and one count of felony failure to remain at the scene of an accident that caused serious injury or death, as well as a violent habitual felon, which carried a mandatory penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge Anna Mills Wagoner sentenced Farook to two consecutive life terms along with a consecutive prison sentence of 29 to 44 months.

Farook spent six years in jail waiting for the initial trial to come to fruition in 2018, and in 2020, after that initial conviction, he appealed on the grounds that the court denied his right to a speedy trial.

Initially, the appeals court agreed with him and sent the case back to Rowan, citing numerous reasons for overturning the conviction, including the assertion that the lower court had not provided an explanation for the delays.

The Superior Court in Rowan ruled against him in 2022, citing the court’s backlog as justification for the delays. But Farook again appealed, and this time he added two additional challenges, saying that he also believed the prosecution had not met the burden of proof of malice, which is required for a second-degree murder conviction, and that his attorney had asked the jury in his closing arguments to find Farook guilty of the lesser counts without Farook’s permission.

In the decision released by the appeals court on Dec. 31, the court was divided in its findings.

It upheld the lower court’s finding on the speedy trial issue, accepting the lower court’s assertion that the backlog prevented the court from moving any faster, and agreed there was sufficient evidence of malice because following the crash, Farook had fled the scene and had been driving impaired and with a revoked license.

But the appeals court did find that his attorney acted outside of his best interests if he did ask the jury to find Farook guilty of a lesser charge without Farook’s permission and have sent the case back to Rowan.

In 2017, the prosecution of the case was taken over by lawyers from the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, who remain in charge of the case and who will be in charge of determining if there will be a new trial. Farook will remain imprisoned in North Carolina while the case progresses.