Asheville Woman Charged After New Leicester Highway Crash Kills Motorcyclist

Norman Lawrence Murray, 69, of Candler, died after a 2014 Toyota Scion turning left into a parking lot struck his 2008 Honda VT750C Shadow on New Leicester Highway, Asheville police said. The collision occurred near the 320 block around 2:24 p.m. on April 1, 2025, and Murray was taken to Mission Hospital, where he died the next day on April 2.

Asheville patrol officers who responded to the scene closed New Leicester Highway in both directions while emergency crews and investigators processed the wreck, police reported. Photographs published by local television crews show emergency vehicles and investigators at the 320 block scene on April 1 as crews worked to clear the roadway.

After completing its investigation and consulting with the Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office, Asheville police identified the driver of the Toyota as 63-year-old Lisa Gonce Payne of Asheville and, in an updated news release on April 4, charged her with misdemeanor death by vehicle and failure to yield during a left turn. Payne turned herself in the same day, was booked into the Buncombe County Detention Facility and released under a written promise to appear, police said.

Payne’s first court appearance was listed on a Buncombe County online calendar for May 7, 2025. No bond amount or further pretrial conditions were reported in the charging notices released by police; courtroom filings or district attorney paperwork will be required to confirm formal charge language and any additional allegations.

Murray’s death was the fourth motor vehicle fatality recorded within Asheville in 2025, police records cited by local reporting show; earlier in February 2025, three Asheville-area motorcyclists were killed in the same week, two within city limits and one in Swannanoa. Those figures frame ongoing traffic safety concerns on city streets like New Leicester Highway and approaching Patton Avenue, where the motorcycle had been traveling south at the time of the crash.

Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact Asheville police at 828-252-1110. Anonymous tips can be sent by texting TIP2APD to 847411 or by using the TIP2APD smartphone app (search “Asheville PD” in the app store), police said.

An unverified report supplied to newsrooms referenced Feb. 13 and Feb. 19, 2026 dates for a separate citation, but Asheville police and contemporaneous investigative releases place the crash and the charging action in April 2025. Journalists seeking charging documents, the APD crash report, or the district attorney’s statement can request those public records through official Buncombe County channels to confirm filing details and subsequent court proceedings.