Category Archives: Killing of Narcotics Anonymous Sponsor Raises Fears Among Sponsors

AA Member Pleads Guilty in the Shooting Death of His Alcoholics Anonymous Sponsor

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Charlotte NC AA member shot his AA sponsor to death for reasons undisclosed. His sponsor was well known in the 12 step arena, even leading gay meetings.

“Huffman met Middleton in an AA meeting and later asked him to be his sponsor, a mentoring relationship that’s at the heart of most 12-step recovery programs. They were already neighbors in Sedgefield, and they became friends.”

Charlotte man pleads guilty in shooting death of AA sponsor

By Michael Gordon
Posted: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013
 Earlier this year, Chris Huffman wrote of feeling like a prisoner.

Now he’ll live out his life being one.

Huffman, 42, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the shooting death of Charles “Mike” Middleton, his one-time Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, neighbor and friend. Superior Court Judge Richard Boner sentenced Huffman to a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Volusia County Drug Court mandating AA meetings.

On the morning of Jan. 25, Middleton, a longtime volunteer in Charlotte’s 12-step community, was shot 11 times in front of his home in the Sedgefield community. Police found him on the sidewalk, still wearing his bedroom slippers. Continue reading →

Murder of Narcotics Anonymous Sponsor Raises Fears Among Other NA Sponsors

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 Twist in Sedgefield killing: Victim was Narcotics Anonymous Sponsor

Killing of Charlotte Narcotics Anonymous Sponsor raises fears among local sponsors

Friends say man arrested in murder had been sponsored by the victim

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
cwootson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Tuesday, Jan -29, 2013-Jan. 31, 2013

 

The man accused of killing Charles Middleton at his south Charlotte home Saturday morning was a man he’d sponsored while involved in a Narcotics Anonymous program years ago, people close to the situation say.

The disclosure has heightened fears about the potential dangers of sponsorship relationships among recovering addicts in the Charlotte area.

 

On Monday, Christopher Paul Huffman was taken into custody in Casa Grande, Ariz., more than 2,000 miles from the scene of the shooting on Elmhurst Road in the Sedgefield neighborhood adjacent to Dilworth.

 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg homicide detectives traveled to Arizona on Monday to interview Huffman, who had no criminal record. Police have not divulged a possible motive in the killing or said whether Middleton’s sponsorship work with Huffman made him a target.

 

But for people involved in 12-step programs, the link spurred wariness and fear.

 

“It is almost a sacred thing. These are people who so freely give of themselves,” said a Narcotics Anonymous member who declined to give his name because the association frowns on speaking to the press. “How do they know that the people who we are trying to help are not going to do us harm?”

Continue reading →