A Clinton-area man charged with the 2021 murder of a local resident whose body was never found will spend the next 20 to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to the death in Sampson County Superior Court Monday.

By pleading guilty to the second degree murder and concealment of death charges, James Eric House, 40, of 10497 N. US. 421 Hwy., Clinton, admitted his role in the disappearance and murder of David Van Alphin, 35, whose family reported him missing on Feb. 22, 2021, several days after the Sampson man was last seen on a hog farm on Elwood Road.

Superior Court Judge Henry Stevens consolidated the two felony charges and sentenced House to a minimum of 240 months and a maximum of 300 months in the Department of Corrections, a sentence wedged in the middle of the presumptive prison

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