No charges will be filed in the July 3 shooting death of a Hendersonville man following an investigation’s conclusion the shooter acted in self-defense, District Attorney Greg Newman announced Friday.

Family members of the victim, James Franklin Stepp III, are questioning the integrity of the investigation, however, and say they don't believe the self-defense claim.

Stepp, 48, was shot by Greg Carl Spinella at 706 Brooklyn Ave. at 6:15 p.m. following an altercation that was caught partly on video. Stepp’s family is calling for the release of the footage, but Newman said none would be released by his office.

Stepp’s son, Jimmy, worked for Spinella at Spinella Trucking and Excavating Inc. and was fired the day of the incident after Spinella claimed Jimmy had damaged equipment, Newman said during a news conference Friday morning at the Henderson County Courthouse. Hendersonville Police Chief Herbert Blake also attended the news conference.

The son was asked to leave the property, then returned and had a heated verbal exchange with Spinella, which led to his firing, according to Newman.

Stepp then went to the business and confronted Spinella, Newman said. Stepp asked Spinella to give him his son's paycheck immediately, Newman said. Newman said Stepp was not invited onto the property and Spinella did not know who Stepp was.

The incident quickly escalated, and Stepp punched Spinella in the head “very forcefully,” which caused Spinella to fall to the ground facedown, according to Newman, adding that Stepp continued to punch Spinella in the head.

A witness tried to break it up before getting tangled up and falling down, which allowed Spinella to turn enough to grab the pistol near the small of his back that he legally carried, Newman said.

After grabbing his pistol, Spinella stuck the firearm into Stepp’s chest and fired “as many times as he could fire it,” Newman said.

Three shots were fired, and the fatal shot hit Stepp in the pelvic region. Another went into his chest and out his arm, and a third grazed his leg.

Stepp had one firearm in his vehicle and his son had two, according to Newman. Spinella was the only person to fire any shots.

The son had gone outside during the altercation, and upon seeing his father shot, drove him to Pardee Hospital, Newman explained. Stepp was later pronounced dead at Mission Hospital.

Spinella went to AdventHealth with head injuries.

Newman said HPD conducted a thorough investigation, and the evidence included some video footage, witness statements and results from an autopsy HPD officers were in attendance for. North Carolina is on the side of Spinella in the incident, according to Newman.

“…the law supports what this man did. It is difficult, it is tragic, yes. This is not the way we want people to handle their disputes, but the facts are compelling that this is an act of self-defense, and for that reason I will not be submitting an indictment to the grand jury,” Newman said.

Newman said the case would not win a conviction in court, and that he and HPD were “very much in agreement” about the results of the investigation.

“I would not be in a position as district attorney to satisfy a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that this man was not acting in self-defense; I just would not be able to do that,” Newman said.

Newman said the footage reviewed in the investigation was from a motion-activated camera and the entire altercation is not seen in the video. He said it is not a steady stream of video and does “jump around a little bit.” Under statute the video will not be released unless a court orders it, Newman said.

Newman said the decision took three weeks because the police department had to be careful in its approach. Spinella did not give a statement right away, and some individuals had to be called back in for statements. Newman said Stepp’s son made two statements that were conflicting.

“North Carolina law provides that all of our people have the right to defend themselves against aggressive behavior, especially if they feel that their life is in danger or they are in danger of great bodily injury,” Newman said.

He expressed sympathy for Stepp’s family, and acknowledged their disapproval of the decision.

“I understand there will be people sad about this, people upset with me about this, but my duty is to not put forward any case that shouldn’t go forward,” Newman said. “It is not pleasant. It is not easy. That’s just where we are with things. That is our decision. So this case will not be prosecuted against Mr. Spinella for what happened on July 3.”

The situation should ideally have been handled differently and not escalated to what it did, Newman said.

“If people owe people money, or owe them an apology or own them anything, there are ways to go about that, but to go and make demands and then to punch people may have horrible and tragic consequences, as it did in this case,” Newman said.

Newman met with Stepp’s family before the news conference Friday morning.

Stepp family demands SBI investigation, disapproves of decision

Members of Stepp's family stood outside the courthouse following the news conference to make a statement and express their outrage at the decision. More than a dozen people gathered across the street holding signs that read “Justice for Pup,” referring to Stepp's nickname.

The family contends that Stepp went onto the property to return a borrowed air compressor, not to demand a paycheck. An attorney for Stepp’s family also said Jimmy was told by Spinella to call his dad, and that Spinella had knowledge of who Stepp was.

Travis Rector, a former Hendersonville police officer, was one of the two witnesses at the scene, and Stepp’s family said they consider it a conflict in the investigation.

Kim Shepherd, Stepp’s sister, said her brother’s death has been devastating to the family. She believes there were conflicts involved in an "incomplete" investigation. The family is calling for the State Bureau of Investigation to look into the shooting.

Shepherd briefly spoke to reporters alongside her parents, Shelia and James Stepp Jr., who were visibly upset at the decision. The family’s attorney, Monica Gillett, was also present.

“While we respect self-defense, we understand there is such a thing as imperfect self-defense, and we believe true self-defense is for an innocent party, and this person was not an innocent party,” Gillett said. “This was somebody that provoked this.”

Gillett claims Spinella had threatened to kill Jimmy earlier in the day, and that Spinella had made statements about his desire to be in a situation that resulted in gun shots being fired. She said these claims were not investigated.

“He was looking for something to happen, and something did happen, and now he is trying to claim self-defense and getting away with murdering somebody,” Gillett said.

She said the next step would be to ask the Sheriff's Office to back an SBI investigation.

The Sheriff’s Office had received no official requests as of 4 p.m. Friday, Sheriff Lowell Griffin said.

“I have complete confidence in the Hendersonville Police Department and extreme confidence in our District Attorney Greg Newman to make competent decisions concerning these types of cases,” Griffin said.

If the SBI did get involved, its investigation would also be brought to Newman for a decision on whether to bring charges.

An online petition on Change.org titled “Justice for Jim ‘Pup’ Stepp” had nearly 1,500 signatures by 2 p.m. Friday. The petition says a jury should decide innocence or guilt and cites concerns about potential conflicts of interest in the case.